The Legend of Manic the Hedgehog REWRITTEN
by Blink Blackstar
Summary: CH3 Rewritten. Manic returns three years after Underground, looking for something. However, everyone seems to look for him as a strange rumor is floating around and an old menace is rising again, and the only one who can stop it, is him.
1. Prologue: The Demon

Disclaimer: Well, first of all, I do not own Manic or any Sonic character who appears here, they are property of Sega, Dic and Archie respectively. I guess that's all then.

Author's notes (PLZ READ): Due to some mistakes I noted in the fic, I am rereading it and rewriting it. I noticed a lot of mistakes in the plot and the character traits. This changes are for good, because this is my favorite fic and I love it to death, and so I want it to be EPIC and AWESOME but I also want it to make sense, ok? To those who have read it, I would like you to re-read it and see the changes so you don't get all confused, ok? And don't forget to review!! Reviwes are what keep this running, the fuel for the ficcie, so go and push the nice button ok? Now the anonymous can also reviwe so don't go just ebcause you don't have an accounnt, I want everyone to encourage me and give me your best crits, ok? Thank you so much and remember that Blink loves you all!! ~

Also, added a glossary at the end of every chapter, so in case the SU fans don't know some chars here from the Archie universe they can know what I'm talking about, also there are small notes on other stuff and so on. That'a all for now, please enjoy and I leave you with this quote, or better said, small hint for the ficcie:

_"No hero is mortal till he dies."_ - W.H. Auden

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Prologue: The Demon

"Today; Sonic the Hedgehog and his companion, Tails defeated Dr. Robotnik after a sudden clash in one of his Egg Bases, another touchdown for the Freedom Fighters!" A young man stated, his radio voice was heard all over the place since the bar was almost empty. Only the bartender, three men playing cards and a young boy reading a magazine were the only souls around the place.

"That Sonic is a thing, now isn't he?" The bartender asked to the boy, whose face was covered behind the pages. The magazine was pretty similar to tabloids, but cheesier since the only thing they talked about was about how his "almighty majesty" was making the world a better place.

"You're endangering your life by hearing that resistance's radio station you know that dude?" His voice sounded vague, like a teenager, the mud covered soles of his boots(1) sowing over the stone table of the bar.

"Pfft, they're not going to catch me." Said the man, taking a dishcloth and cleaning some glasses.

"Yeah right, keep saying that to yourself until the 'bots come, they will surely believe you."

The bartender stared at him dumbfounded while still cleaning a glass. "Don't you believe in the resistance boy?"

"I never said that. I think they have done pretty much for all of us."

"Yeah, at least someone cares for changing this rotten society."

"Yeah, say that to me." He sighed. The man changed channels to a slow old tune. With the ring of a bell, indicating that someone else entered the place, three big hyenas appeared. Big boned and strong looking they started walking slowly to the bartender.

"Oh no, not them." He whispered. The leader of the group went on and slapped his hand over the table.

"So what's up?" Expressionless, they comfronted the man.

"What do you want?"

"You know exactly what the hell I want!" He said grabbing the bartender's collar and threw him him against a walls, some bottles fell. Then the hyena pulled from his pockets a sack, while his subordinate pulled a gun and pointed at him with it.

"Fill it." He turned his head to three scared guys sitting in a table at the back. "And if one of you asses dares to say a word about this, I'll make sure you don't speak ever again!!"

"Why? You're going to buy yourself a little nice dress?"

He looked at the young boy and smiled, even though that comment ticked him off.

"Heh heh, little boy…" The hyena put his hand over the chair where the boy was sitting. "Didn't your mom teach you to shut up when the adults are talking?"

"No she didn't, but that's none of your business." He left the magazine and stood up in front of the twice-as-big-as-him hyena, his face that now could be seen was the one of a young green hedgehog, and his eyes were covered by huge blue goggles(2). "This poor man has nothing to offer so I suggest you that you leave him alone."

"You think you scare us?"

"I could do that."

They laughed because, of course, it was a ridiculous scene. Them, a pack of hyenas, scared of a small, twice as small as them hedgehog was stupid, but of course, in a world like Mobius, everything ridiculous was possible, but still unbelievable.

"You've got yourself in a big trouble pretty boy, we'll see if you can step up when we finish you up, little prey."

"No leave him alone! He's just a boy!-"

"Shut up or I'll blow your guts!!" Said the other hyena still pointing the gun at the bartender.

"Depravated bastard. You're nothing more than scum, and will always be scum, destined to rot yourself under the sun. I can see why you wanna pick on me, because it's simple. You wanna feel strong, that's why you steal. I usually am all cool with my friends the thieves, since most of them do it because is necessary, but for you, that's a different matter, ass."

Then no one said anything, the toughness of the words coming from such young lips sure impressed everyone, and got the hyena guy angrier. Then he attempted to grab the boy by his shirt.

"You little brat, you- you don't know what you're talking about! I was going to be nice with you, but I guess now I'll take my time."

"Don't touch me." The boy's voice intended fear and danger, the hyena, and everyone could feel it, he was serious. "Or I'll break every darned bone of your body."

"I'll touch you whatever I want-!" He didn't notice how, or when it happened, but he was sure he landed on a wall pretty quick. The boy acted quickly and threw him to the ground and attempted to choke him with both hands. The hyena called his friends to help him, reacting quickly, the young hedgehog avoided the bullets and proceeded to knock out the others. He grabbed one of the guns and pointed the leader of the gang, who was still stupefied by both the impact and the sudden attack of the kid.

Still breathing highly the hedgehog managed to say something. "I'll give you a chance to get out of here, so do it before I start getting angry again."

They didn't waste time, they took their stuff and left as quick as they came, and everything ended soon enough.

The bartender got up from under the table. "You-you're…." He said to the boy.

"I'm what?" He took his coke glass and took a drink.

"The green demon."

"…Yeah, I guess you could say so, good thing I came, eh? I wouldn't have liked them myself to rob-"

"GET OUT OF HERE." Said the bartender all of a sudden, the hedgehog looked at him with a surprised face, his face saddened a little as he lowered his head. "Yeah sure, just gimme a sec-"

"NOW!" Said the man wielding one of the guns left by the burglars. The hedgehog pulled out of his pocket money and put it over the table.

"Keep the change. Thanks for everythin' bud." And so he left without saying anything else.

After a while, another hedgehog traveled with his young fox friend around the old city of Robotropolis. Everyone around the town recognized him, of course, his bright blue fur and bright green eyes labeled him as the famous "Blue Blur" Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Sonic, why are we in the city?" Asked his companion.

"Well, I don't know. I just felt like coming through the city, since nothing interesting is happening." He shrugged.

"What is that anyway?" Tails pointed to the same small bar the misterious boy had been, which was surrounded by several people, Sonic's curiosity then arose.

"I dunno, let's take a look."

The place was infested with people, most freedom fighters by the looks of it. When getting in the crowd and then inside the bar, they saw the place was completely torn up and barely anything was intact except for the fans and the ceiling. Sonic turned his face to see and old partner he didn't see in years.

"Hey guys, partying?."

"Sonic?" Cyrus looked confused. "Man, What are you doing here?"

"Nothing special, looking around. Hey, know my mate, Tails?"

"Yeah, I've seen him plenty of times." Said Cyrus holding the fox boy's hand. "What's up buddy?"

"I'm fine." Tails said, smiling kindly.

"So what happened here?" Asked Sonic scratching his head.

"Well, this place was attacked by a gang of killers; this man here was saved by a strange guy."

"The green demon, I'm sure it was him!!"

"Mister, there's no such thing as the-"

"The green demon?" Asked Sonic confused. "What's that?"

"It's just a stupid legend about a hedgehog guy who has the strength of an army or something like that."

"I'm very sure it was him!"

"And how was this 'Green Demon' you're talking about?" Asked Tails.

"Well, he looked pretty much like, like YOU!" He pointed at Sonic, who was not amused in any way.

"Yeah, very much guys look like me, it has gotten me into many scrapes in the past." Said Sonic, while walking around the place.

"And he was green and blue eyed(3), he also had some kind of weird haircut-."

"A haircut? Something like a mohawk?" Cyrus asked.

"I guess..."

"Was he wearing a medallion on his neck?" Sonic asked all of a sudden, he was now interested as well.

"I'm- I'm not sure. Sorry."

"Sonic." Added Cyrus surprised. "You think it could be…?"

"It could, who knows?." He started walking away. "I'll see you around Cyrus. Tails, come with me me."

"What's happening?"

"I'll tell you in the way, now come on!" Sonic ordered. "Is time for a reunion."

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Glossary and notes:

1. In the fic, Manic's clothes are different, is three years after the Underground. He wears a black tank sleeveless shirt, cargo pants, dark brown boots, blue goggles and black and red gloves, along with his spiked bracelets. His hair is also a little different, but that's another story. Another thing, since three years passed, Manic's 19 years old now, along with Sonic and other characters, which are now older. Tails is also 11 years old here.

2. The blue goggles are not only because of Sonic Riders, but are also in tribute to two awesome anime series which are Furi Kuri and Tengen Toppa, I wanted to make this clear since there are a ot of fans out there. I gotta keep up and watch the series tho'.

3. While some people picture Manic's eyes as brown, I picture them as blue, but since people tend to confuse him with scourge due to the eye and fur color, I wanted to note that his eyes in my fic are a grayish blue, or a blue-ish gray, whatever you want to call it.

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You see the button? Is begging you to click it!! It say "Click me... I gotta feed my family.... My wife and two children..." So do it now! Mrs. Button and the little icons need turkey for dinner!! :'D They thank you!


	2. When Young

'Ello again! Here's the rewritten chapter for TLMTH! This one had some drastic changes, so I would recommend you to read this one again to keep up with the story. I'm so glad for all the lovely reviews I've recieved, so that's why I will share the answers here! So here I go!:

Nara-Chan 25: Why thank you! I will definately continue to write more! I'm still trying to write the next chapter, but I also have to rewrite, so I hope it doesn't delay it too much.

The Mouse of Anon: Thanks Fira! Like always, you inspire me a lot! *cough*cause you're awesome*cough*

Velvet Black Rose: I'll indeed go on, my friend, I'll indeed go on.

Manicfan40: Thank you! I have several reasons for why I'm rewritting the story: I want it to have no plotholes and to make more sense, I want to make it more readable, I'm improving the grammar in the fic, and the most important of all, I want to get rid of some cliches and make Manic less Gary-stu-ish. With this said, I hope this answers your question sweetie! :3

All Cats Unite: THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU. I really appreciate your message, really reallyyyyyyy... There are other good Manic fics here as well, you just have to know where they are! If you need any help or explanation, you can always message me.

Not only All Cats Unite, but all of you! If you have a question or any suggestion you can feel free of messaging me and I'll take in count. As always, please enjoy the chapter and please take a little time to review, is highly appreciated. :)

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Chapter I: When Young

The green boy was out of the city in half an hour after the bar incident. He came to a rocky pattern in which a cave rested and got inside.

Down, the stalagmites started to disappear and metal started to make its way in the ceiling as he walked by, same with the floor. When he reached the end of the cave, all that was seen was a steel room with boxes and other kinds of junk all around. Dozends of people were living there; some with amputated limbs and terribly scarred, nothing could be heard except for the constant chatter and a group moving a big box around.

He stared at them as they put that carriage in the ground and a mouse with glasses tried to open it, but no avail.

"Here dude, lemme help." He opened the wooden box with his bare hands, like it was made of cardboard, the mouse, astonished couldn't say a word for a while.

"Holy- that's what I call strength! Are you new around here?"

The hedgehog laughed. "Trevor, is me!" He took his goggles off, revealing his grayish blue eyes, the mouse adjusted his glasses and his eyes opened wide.

"Oh yeah! Sorry, forgot about that." Manic just smiled and shook his head.

"You will have to do something with your head."

"I'm too busy for that. Come on, let's go somewhere else." He took Manic to a place where some plastic chairs and tables were arranged. Both sat and started talking. "So, tell me, found something new, a matter of interest? You haven't called me since-"

"Since the invasion of Angel Island, I know. You know I've been busy with that."(1)

"I can imagine. Anyways, you have something for me?"

"Actually yeah dude." He pulled out of his pocket a yellow scratched paper and put it on the table. It had drawn the sketch of a roboticizer. "I need one of these." He pointed a part of the sketch to show his point.

"A fusible?"

"Yeah."

"What for?"

"I'm planning to build a new deroboticizer." He whispered.

Trevor didn't say anything for a moment. "But I thought that all the mobians were deroboticized."

"Well, between you and me…" He looked around to see that no one was looking at them as he got close. "I've seen some people still working at the bases. They are few but they still need our help. Also, if those are the only ones working, I bet there are more of them dismantled or kept under lock."

"What about Ceneca 9009's deroboticizer?"(2)

"Destroyed."

"Destroyed? You serious?"

"Uh-huh." He drank a little more water and coughed again, this time, stronger.

"That would explain why she had to run away. Apparently they think is better for us to be robians." Trevor stretched himself on his chair. "Well, either way. That piece, I don't have it."

"Dang it." He pounded the table softly.

"As I told you, since we all thought all the robians were deroboticized, there's no use for that piece anymore."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Sorry man."

"Well, is a real shame, I guess I'll have to go to pay a visit to someone else." He stepped up from his chair, preparing himself to go.

"To who exactly?" Trevor glared in a curious way, Manic grinned.

"An old friend. See ya." He said as he walked out of the cave. Trevor smiled as he watched him go.

"Good luck Demon."

Meanwhile, the sonic gang had arrived to a luxurious house at the north of South Island. It was hard to get in the house, since the servants said they didn't admit guesses, but Sonic apparently knew a person in that house. After getting in, a maid received them.

"Miss Sonia will come in a few minutes, please sit down."

Sonic, Tails and Amy walked inside the room. The mansion was big at the outside, but in the inside; it was far beyond reality. Red walls decorated with patterns were delightful to the view, also there were columns made of marble and gold and the ceiling was decorated with patterns of angels. Amy felt like looking around all they long, hypnotized by the beauty of the house.

"Sonic, what are we waiting for?" Tails asked, almost bored if the curiosity got him intrigued.

"I'm waiting for Sonia, but at this rate, I'm going to fall asleep!"

"I can see you haven't changed." A female hedgehog said as she came from a door. Her color was a darker pink than Amy's, she had 6 quills that came from the back of her head, apparently treated to be used as hair instead, and a long bang that came from the top of her head and slightly covered her face. She was wearing casual clothes to fit the reunion with the trio. "You're still the same impatient little brat I know."

Sonic laughed a little as Tails and Amy stood speechless. "Is nice to see you again too."

"It's been a long time Sonic." She hugged the hedgehog tight, something that Amy didn't appreciate. Pulling her Piko-Piko hammer she made a clear statement that would be heard all over the house.

"GET OFF -MY MAN!" Said Amy holding her hammer, her face was reddened with anger. The hedgehog girl laughed.

"Well Well Sonic!" The hedgehog girl laughed. "I can see you have a fan –or should I say –girlfriend?"

Sonic sighed and Amy continued. "Yes, I'm his girlfriend, so get off from him now or-"

"He didn't tell you we're siblings right?" No one said anything, Amy dropped her hammer amazed. Since when Sonic had a sister? "Apparently you've been to busy to tell your friends about your past."

"Heh –well-" Sonic tried to come up with something before Amy interrupted him.

"You are his… sister?" Amy asked softly.

"Yes, I'm Sonia, nice to meet you-"

"Amy." She said ashamed. "My name… is Amy. And I'm sorry."

"Is alright. I would have done the same as well; after all, we have to protect those we love." Sonia felt a wave of sadness after saying this, but smiled afterwards. "And this must be Tails, the little genius."

"Well, maybe…" Tails blushed. "Thank you."

"Well, either way, why don't we sit? Marianne is preparing some tea and shortcake for us, it may make the visit a little more –sweet." She said as they followed her around the house.

A few minutes later, they were reunited at the dining room. They were all sat and eating, accompanied by the soft sunset light. Sonic started talking:

"I see you've got your fortune back Sonia."

"Yes, and I couldn't be more glad. Lady Windermere's influence helped a lot indeed, but we have been hiding to avoid another incident. But enough about me, I've seen you're still doing some Freedom Fighter work."

"You could say! We're about to defeat Egghead soon enough!"

"That's good to hear." She said as she read a book about Philanthropy.

"Anyways Sonia, I'm here to bring you some good news."

"Mm-hmm?"

"It seems Manic's on the island."

Sonia remained quiet for a second before lowering the book giving Sonic an expression of disbelief. "What?"

"There was a big mess on a bar on the city, apparently a green hedgehog was involved." He made emphasis on the word "green" to prove his point. Sonia sighed softly and put a hand over her mouth in a delicate way, breathing deeply before talking again.

"Sonic, you know that's impossible."

"Is not, you see, is possible that-"

"Who's Manic?" Amy asked. Both Sonia and Sonic remained silent for a moment, until Sonia talked again.

"… He was our brother."

"You have a brother too?" By now, Tails was interested as well. Sonic nodded.

"We're triplets. Children of the once ruler of this land, Queen Aleena, who would form the Council of Four all together, to defeat the invading forces and restore peace once and for all."

"I've heard that story before." Tails stated. "You mean –you Sonic are-"

"Yes. We are both prince and princess of this land."

Everyone stood silent for a moment, until Sonia spoke again.

"It was supposed to be a prophecy that would take place sooner of later, but after all that has happened, it has remained dead."

"Until now, now that Manic is-"

"Sonic." Sonia stared at him with looks so tragic that could reduce anyone to ashes quickly. "You know that Manic's dead. He's been dead for three years-"

"Maybe not! You know what the guys said about the hedgehog that survived Robotization!"

"That proves nothing Sonic. There are like, millions of hedgehogs only in South Island! Come think whole Mobius!"

"I know Sonia, but come think of it! Maybe is him! It doesn't hurt to take a look, now does it?"

"Sonic-"

"Don't you want to take a look? I know you're affected for his and mom's death, but-"

"Don't you EVER talk about mom in that tone. EVER." Sonia's face hardened and her stare was as threatening as the face of a wild angry beast. Sonic said nothing further about that.

"Sorry to ask, but what happened exactly?" Amy asked. Sonia stared at her for a moment.

"I guess you deserve to know…" Sonic nodded as his sister started to talk:

_The rumors have said that Eggman had killed the last hope of the war: A group who went on an expedition to defeat him once and for all, a spy from within had told the doctor about the plan, also that mom would come to the fight. In response of all, he captured them all after their defeat and burnt their bodies until they were as black as chalcoal. Rumors said that little of them had survived, but the corpses were impossible to recognize._

_We were all brokenhearted, I felt like everything we had done had been in vain and I didn't have strength to fight. I don't know about Sonic, but we were very affected by the loss. Manic was really affected as well and couldn't believe that mom had died. _

"_It can't be dude, I mean, it can't. Mom's not killed that easily. I'm pretty sure she's alive, she must be, I mean…" Manic swallowed before speaking again. "She has hidden herself for a long time now, she can't just…die." _

"_Don't you understand?!" I snapped. "There's no way she could have survived that attack! Stop that childish behavior of yours and start thinking like an adult!" _

"_But-" _

"_Stop it I said! Why can't you just leave me alone!" I started crying. I shouldn't have said that to him, he was very sensitive of what other people said to him. But even though I told him to stop, he did exactly the opposite and continued. _

"_I'm sure she's alive." I noticed how his accents seemed to disappear for a moment, as if he became another person for a second. "Maybe you think everything is over, but lying here telling to ourselves that we can't do anything else is cowardice sis. And I will not stay here doing nothing, I –I will-" His voice seemed to tremble a little before he said it, but he was sure of what he would say. "I will find mom." _

_I yelled at him on how stupid that idea sounded. "There's no way you can do that-!"_

"_THERE'S NO WAY YOU CAN DO THAT, there's no way you can do that, you can't, you can't- I'M GODDAMN SICK OF HEARING IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!" We remained silent for a moment. "I'm sick of everyone telling me that I can't do a single thing. You think I'm retarded or what?! I'm not a little kid anymore! I'm going to find mom! Sonic, come with me, we're going to-" _

"_No." _

_Manic's face changed suddenly, as if he was recently hit by surprise. "What?" _

"_I can't Manic, I'm sorry." _

"_So you leave me as well. Fine." He was angry once again. " I can do it alone, I don't need any of you." He said as he walked away. _

_After this, no one said anything to anyone. He picked his stuff and left to be never seen again. _

"After a while we started searching for him, but no avail, be understood that he meant serious business. We searched for weeks, the whole Freedom Fighter squadron of the area helped us, but no avail. After a month we heard that a royal member was killed by the empire robot forces. It was a terrible loss." Sonia stated. "I abandoned the Fighters, I didn't feel like doing that anymore. I went to live with my friend until everyone was deroboticized, but that didn't help to make me feel less guilty, I still feel is my fault that he left."

Sonic lowered his head a little, also feeling guilty by his brother's departure.

"I remember he used to be so cheerful and carefree, always so full of hope, even though he grew up in an unstable environment. I never saw him enraged except for –that time. And I wish –I wish it wouldn't have been that way." A tear slipped through her face. Sonic stared at her for a moment.

"Sonia. This is a new chance, we can find Manic, I mean, think about it. I really miss him too Sonia, I really do. That's why I want to do this."

Sonia looked at him for a moment. "And what if is not him? Have you thought about it?"

"Well, we've got nothing to loose, now do we?"

"… Alright." Sonia decided. "But just for you, I hate when you actually convince me like that."

Sonic lughed. "I guess I'm just that lovable."

"Yeah right. We'll start the search tomorrow in the morning, I'll give Knuckles a call, we'll need all the help we can get."

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Glossary: 

1. See STH Issues #181, 182 and 183 for details. You can also visit .

2. A deroboticizer was built by Ceneca 9009, a female Bem (alien race from the Archie Comics) scientist, she was persecuted because of this, since the Bem thought Mobians were having a better life as Robians (roboticized people). I added the destroyed thing for the fic to make more sense. For more info, see the link above.

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You know what to do now! YES YOU DO! REVIEWWWW NOWWWWWWW.....


	3. Songbird

Disclaimer: Well, first of all, I do not own Manic or any Sonic character who appears here, they are property of Sega, Dic and Archie respectively. I guess that's all then.

Author's notes (PLZ READ): Another fixed chapter, this one took me a long time to fix, since it was one of the longest. It won't fit with the following chapter tho', so you will have to wait until I repost the other one. YES, I am working on the newest chapter, don't push me! D:

Anyways, I hope you will like this one better. I made some drastic changes to this chapter, but you will like the characters better than before, k? Have a nice reading! If you need to contact me, I'll leave the links at my account, cause this thing is just too bitchy.

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Chapter II: Songbird

"So here it is." Said Sonia, showing a map of Robotropolis. "This is the location of Hot Pot Bar." She circled a part of the map with a pen. "Acording to Cyrus, who talked with the bartender and some witnesses, he went to the norwest."

"You sure?" Sonic asked.

"Completely."

"Then I think we should search there first." Sonic replied back.

"I don't think that helps us that much." Said Tails hopeless. "He could have turned somewhere else, I mean, who knows."

"I know. That's why I told Cyrus to keep his eyes open and inform us if he gets something. Cyrus knows what he's doing, we owe him our lives." Answered Sonia, then she heard a knock on the door. "Oh, that must be Knuckles."

She opened the door to the red echidna, who looked a little uncomfortable. "Hello Sonia."

"Hey Knuckles, how's everything?"

"Everything is fine. You look rather –uh –good."

"Why thank you!" The conversation between them was so monotone Sonic wanted to puke right there, or he would say. "Why don't you come in? We will need all the help we can get."

"Thanks. Hey everybody."

"Hey Knucklehead, haven't seen ya in a while." Sonic gave his biggest grin, which wasn't welcomed by the echidna.

"I'm not here for you Sonic, I did this because Sonia asked-"

"Yeah, yeah, 'she asked you' I know. Either way, you know what we're looking for I suppose."

"Your brother Manic, I know, Sonia told me everything. Say, wasn't he-?"

"We are not sure, but we want to." Sonia answered.

"I see."

"Either way Knuckles, we are gonna search for Manic through the norwest of the city first, Cyrus and the others will take care of the rest."

"What if you don't find him there?"

"What?"

"Have you thought about that? About not finding it?"

They remained silent for a moment, then Sonia firmly spoke: "No. But if Sonic and I stay here, we'll feel more guilty of doing nothing more than not finding anything." She then turned to Tails. "So tell me, little fox, you said you had an airplane, right?"

"Ahh, the good ol' mountains. The view of the factory, plus the burning smoke sure add something to the view! Lovely."

Manic stood close to the largest base he had seen in a long time. In the Eggman empire, there we three kind of bases: The exterminating grounds, where people who rebelled against the authority were restrain and tortured, sometimes killed and roboticized. There were the factories, where robots were built and assembled massively. And finally, here were the "Castles", where he resided, depending on the situation; there was one on each region he reigned on.

This was a castle, and it was full of robots, Manic knew it was suicide to just get in there like that, but he had a plan.

He sulked close to a tree and spied on the four robots in the front of the giant iron door. He reached for his bag and took out a small round artifact on his fingers; he knelled and let it roll until it reached the feet of one of the robots, bumping with a soft clank. The robot took it from the ground, and before it could calculate what it was, it emitted a short beep and unleashed a shocking wave that short-circuited the four robots simultaneously. When they fell to the ground, Manic proceeded to run to the door, and placed his back on the door, making sure no-one was around, when he was sure, he took three more round artifacts, took some steps away and threw them over the metal wall, he then approached again and cracked the keypad next to the door, making it open. The robots in the small, plant-less "garden" had been deactivated by the small wave bombs, to Manic's luck. He then proceeded to get more inside the base.

In a few minutes, he had gotten in the very entrails of the base, and had figured where what he was looking for was hiding, however, there was something that was wrong, something strange was moving in the air, there were more robots than usual, what was going on exactly?

He figured it out as soon as he heard steps and voices getting closer, he quickly hid beside a wall and listened closely:

"How is the search going?"

"Well… we have just found one of them, Lord Robotnik."

"And may I know why you're being so incompetent?" Manic almost flinched when Dr. Ivo Robotnik's tone of voice slightly rose.

"Well, lord…!" Sleet tried to explain. "It- It's been a hard search! A- and with Sonic's current attacks, we've been out of resources!"

"Hmm, I see, very well, alright. On other topic, have you found the intruder?"

Manic's heard pounded hard on his chest, did they already found the trail of knocked-out robots he left behind?

"Not yet sir, however, we found two more swatbots with holes pierced on them, we calculate they were caused by a small battery gun, since it seems it took the subject several shots to terminate them.

"Well, alright. Keep searching, if you find him, kill him immediately. I don't want any more interruptions while we keep the search, now get going!"

"Yes sir."

After they left, Manic headed to his objective while he thought about what he heard: He knew that he didn't pierce the robots to get in the base, the wave bombs were used to induce short-circuits on robots, not damage them from the outside, and he knew he wasn't carrying a gun with him. He concluded: There was another person in the base, and whoever that person was; he or she was searching for what Eggman had acquired recently. He kept wondering until he finally reached the door.

He cracked once again in the keypad on the left next to the door, making it go open; it was all pitch black inside. "Damn it, what the hell is he trying to hide?" He said, patting the walls searching for a switch, when he found it, he turned the lights on. "Oh god."

What Manic saw was like a sci-fi movie more that reality. Half robotized people were inside glass tubes filled with a green substance, hundreds of them. While walking through the cellar Manic observed them all, one by one. Their bodies were deformed, the machinery hanging from their flesh, complemented by the expressions of pain frozen in their faces and time. Manic felt his stomach turn and his head boil. He felt millions of feelings inside him: Sadness, Anger, Insanity, Nausea, Guilt, Pain.

He proceeded to go to the end of the room, almost running away from the monsters, which would not hurt him, but would still haunt him, and there it was, the strange familiarity that those bodies reminded him, when he had to run from other monsters, to always run away, it was a thief's number-one rule.

When he reached the end of the room, he found what he was looking for. The roboticizer. It was standing there, like a proud lion. Tube shaped, the machine was almost obsolete in the current time they were in; the "Egg Grapes"(1), were newer and more effective, but even though it was old, it was still working. Manic got closer to it and started examining it. "Never seen one this big before." He put a hand over its cold, metallic body. "Well, better get going." He started disarming the machine, this only took him a few minutes, after all, he had done similar things before, he took one of the pieces in his hand, and it looked like a pelvis-shaped glass tube about the size of his hand, with little cables inside it. He examined it carefully "Bingo."

He opened his bag and put it in, and then reached for a device the size of a small book. He ran to one of the electric panels in the room and attached some of the cables to the circuits in the device and started the clock in it. This device would, in thirty minutes shut down the whole system, and everything that involved it in the base, and would create errors as well, making it very difficult and expensive to be repaired properly, he swore that when he got out of that place, he would give the lord an nice surprise to "laugh at".

When he left the room, always checking that there were not swatbots around, Manic decided that is was fair that he got something in exchange for his hard work. He had the habit to, as a thief, steal from his enemies and leave them to clench their teeth and yell all types of curses until he heard them and laugh about it. Besides, he still had to find out what Eggman's minions had found during their search.

Making sure there were no cameras or any other type of security around, he reached the vault and laughed delightfully, pieces of all prices dictated were in that room, put in metallic containers of all sizes. Rubbing his palms together, as that of someone malicious, he started to scrutiny with his hands the treasures found.

"Silly, silly Robotnik. You've been really bad, keeping all these treasures to yourself." He lifted on top of his head a big diamond, making it gleam with the light of the ceiling. He put it on his bag as he spoke. "Thieves steal from thieves too."

He kept on the scrutiny until he turned his attention to a glass container in top of a table, a blue jewel, the size of a fist gleamed alone inside it. The green hedgehog left what he was doing and took a closer look. "A chaos emerald." He looked both sides first, just before he smashed the container, breaking the bulletproof glass, he then pried the remains open and took the emerald and examined it to see if it was real, he confirmed it soon enough. In that same moment, his ear twitched, catching a soft sound in the room, there was definitely someone else in the room.

"You've been pretty quiet, that's good. But not enough." He grinned. "Show yourself, I know you're here."

A gun started to come out of a shadowy area, and Manic slightly put his hands in the air impulsively. The figure that revealed itself was no more than a mongoose girl, two or three inches shorter than him, thin, of yellow fur; her hair was violet and long and her eyes were green. She was wearing some shorts and a black sleeveless shirt, a band on her head and her ears were pierced with several golden loops.

"Well, look at that aren't you a cutie-"

"Give me the emerald." She said coldly, making him flinch a little as his hands arose a little bit more in the air. He blinked innocently.

"The- the emerald? You mean this?" He pointed at the blue jewel on his left hand."

"Of course that, you stupid! Now give it to me!"

"You should put that gun down, you may hurt yourself, and a lady like you shouldn't-"

"I will put it down when I want to, now give me the emerald or I'll make you some piercings!"

"Like the ones you've made to the other swatbots?"

She stood silent and her glare softened a little, he started walking to her.

"You're the other intruder, aren't you? I am surprised you actually went this far, most people could die in this kind of situation."

"That's not your problem, back off or I'll-"

Manic put the emerald in the bag. He then quickly grabbed her hand hard enough to make her throw the gun, he quickly inmovilized her; both of her hands were "tied up" in the green hedgehog's grasp and her face faced his by a few inches.

"Ugh! Let-" She noticed the strength in the hedgehog's hands, but kept fighting. "-Let go of me, you freak!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that babe, grabbing a weapon like that is too dangerous for such a delicate little birdie." That was when she kicked him in the knee. For someone so thin, she sure had strength on her legs. "Ow! Chill dude!"

"I'm a girl."

"Well, I noticed." He said as he pointed her chest with his eyes, making her turn red in both anger and embarrassment and starting to struggle back again. "No no no, sweetheart, don't! You're gonna hurt yourself!"

"I'm gonna hurt you if you don't let go of me!"

"Why that's not the attitude of a lady like you, hottie."

"You don't know me!"

"Of course I do! You're Mina Mongoose, lead singer of the Forget me Knots!(1)"

"What are you, a fan?"

"Indeed I am, I am a HUGE fan! I love your songs!"

"Of course you don't! You're just flirting with me!"

"Of course not…" Mina Mongoose glared at him. "Well, you got me, I am more fond of other kinds of music, but hey! I still think you are a great singer, and it would be an oh-so-great honor if you gave me… I dunno, an autograph, a kiss on the cheek…"

"Oh." She grinned deviously. "So you want a kiss?"

"I mean," Manic grinned. "Heh, if you can resist this handsomeness I own, then you don't have to-" He didn't finish his sentence, he couldn't, since the mongoose had planted her lips on his. He stood wide eyed; in matter of seconds, the hedgehog's heart rate increased, his cheeks turned red, and his grip on the girl loosened softly; an opportunity she took to kick him in the gut, making him finally let go of her while moaning in pain.

Manic turned to face her, his face was of disbelief. "You… you bitch!"

She smiled. "I thought you wanted a kiss, so I gave you one. I saw an opportunity there and used it wisely, it's justified."

"No, is freaking not!" Manic glared at her. "That's the lowest thing to do!"

"Oh, and stealing is fine, you say?"

"I- ah- ah… These things were stolen too! I am contributing to society! I am- I am a mason.(2)"

"Uh huh." An expression of non amusement crossed her face. "That's a nice excuse, almost convinced me. Sarcastically speaking, of course."

"Oh, come on! And what are you gonna tell me about you, huh? Both you and I know that you came here to steal the emerald! Or what will ya tell me? That you came here because your group of schoolmates was on an excursion of "how technology works"?"

"That's not your problem."

"Oh, alright." Manic said with an expression of non-amusement on his face. "So you came to steal the emerald, I may assume."

"Look, you have no room to talk here! I am taking this out of here because it represents danger to Mobius! And if you-"

"Shh." Manic said making a gesture with the finger.

"Don't 'shush' me! I can talk as long as I want!"

"Be quiet!... Something's getting closer."

With that Mina went quiet, Manic gave her the gun and she gripped on it while the hedgehog remained with his ears perked, prepared to attack. The automatic door opened, revealing a creature which they understood, used to be a mobian, but now instead of being of flesh and blood, it had been redone in steel. Manic recognized this individual almost immediately, after all, it had been his tutor for a long time, Farrel was his name.

Sadly, as life is nothing but irony, Farrel didn't recognize him anymore. He made sure of that when he lifted his machinegun and exclaimed in a motionless, robotic voice: "PRIORITY ONE: HEDGEHOG."

"Get down!" Manic yelled, and both he and the mongoose girl threw themselves to the ground, just in time as the robian started the attack. Empty shells flew and bullets pierced the metallic walls, as Manic and Mina remained on the ground. The green hedgehog took advantage that Farrel was distracted and punched the ground, provoking a wave that made Farrel loose balance and fall to the ground.

"Come on! Let's get out of here!" He lifted the mongoose girl over, put her over his shoulders and started running away. In a matter of seconds, he and the girl were being persecuted by an army of robots wile she stood yelling at him.

"PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME- DOWN! I can run!" Manic then stopped and put her as gently as he could on the ground. She glared at him and extended her hand.

"Take my hand."

He did, and just before he could ask, they were running faster than he thought they could muster. They were going so fast, he couldn't even fully wonder how did she get that speed, was it natural? That girl was sure intriguing him, but now, the priority was to escape from there.

However, their escape was cut short as they were surrounded by a gang of swatbots. Manic gestured Mina to stay close to him, but it had been too late. She yelped as she had been lifted off the ground and held by a burly dingo and a smaller wolf.

"You!"

"Why hello prince." The wolf said. "Having fun? You know stealing from our poor Lord Robotnik's against the law."

"Oh yeah, poor, poor Robotnik! Too bad I never really cared about the law in first place."

The wolf smiled in annoyance while Mina kept trying to get off the grip of the big canine that held her.

"Dingo, make her shut up, will you?" The wolf exclaimed.

"Yes Sleet." Dingo quickly hit her in the head making her go unconscious; making Manic automatically angry, his face wrinkled and his fangs flashed, just like an animal that had been cornered and was prepared to bite.

"No, no, no, my prince, that's not the way you should behave, not if you want to keep your girlfriend alive." Manic's expression softened, he knew that if he did something wrong they could kill both him and her, and that was something he couldn't afford on doing. "Now you will come and meet the Lord with us like a good dog, ok?"

Without hesitation, he followed, not sure of what he would do to get out of that mess.

In a matter of minutes, they had entered the room, Mina was still unconscious and he was still not sure of what to do. A man showed up. A human, middle aged, Caucasian. He was bald, big and heavy, he wore some sort of strange red suit with black pants. He wore glasses and goggles over his head and his pink nose was decorated with a red, large moustache. (3)

"My my, Robotnik! You look good! What is that you did to yourself? Some sort of haircut? You lost weight?" Manic said comically.

"Really funny hedgehog, sure you're the same little pest you were three years ago. Did you have fun with the echidnas?"

"Yeah, you could say they taught me something. But tell me, Robuttnik, how are things going?"

"Well, over these years, I have lost territory, armies and power all over Mobius. Your stupid brother has made sure of that."

"I guess he has done his work, then." Manic grinned.

"And I will do my work with you as well, it is enough with one hedgehog. But I will make sure this time to kill you dead. You and the mongoose girl."

Manic thought for a moment what to do, was there something that could help him escape? Some sort of, of advantage?

That was when he heard it. The river.

There was a river close to the base, just in front of the window after him, perhaps, if he could take the right chance, he could take Mina and jump.

"So what do you say hedgehog?"

"I say…." He smirked. "That you better have a lantern."

Robotnik's grin vanished, then, all of a sudden, there was a massive blackout and the place turned pitch black. Robotnik cursed and there were the sounds of a fight, then, after a few seconds, the fight stopped and the glass broke, as the sunlight shone shyly.

"Get him!" The human exclaimed as he realized that the hedgehog had taken the mongoose girl and jumped to the window, with the intention of plummeting into the Kala River, which was deep, so it wouldn't kill him, he would still be alive.

Sleet pulled out his gun and started to shoot as Manic was still falling, he knew he had hit him when a small cloud of blood shone over his shoulder, still he fell into the river.

"I hit him sir!" Robotnik looked out of the window, a small cloud of blood dispersing on the river. He remained staring at the water for a few seconds, until the hedgehog emerged from the water, with the mongoose girl over his shoulder.

"He's alive!" Sleet yelled, while shooting at him again, the bullets jumping in the water, just beside Manic who was swimming to the other side of the river and on to the ground, then running into the trees that surrounded the base. Sleet hit the metal angrily while snarling. "I'll send a squad after him!"

"No." Robotnik held his hand up to the level of his head. "Let him go. He will have a harder time now that he's injured, even more with that sickness of his." Both grinned evilly.

"Go check on the machines."

Meanwhile, Manic kept running, with Mina over his shoulders. He came up to a tree and let himself slip against it after he had put her face up on the ground, panting loudly. Blood was coming out of a hole on the back of his right shoulder, hardly missing his shoulder blade. The pain was terrible, as if needles were pressed against him. He felt nausea and his stomach hurt, then just before he knew it, he was vomiting. The consistence was mixed, but one thing was for sure, there was _blood. _

He shook for a moment and cleaned his mouth. He went to check on the girl, checking her breathing by opening her mouth and listening to the air coming in and out of her lungs, and then to her heartrate, by placing his ears on her chest. Everything was normal with her, good.

He checked on the hole on his shoulder, the bullet had penetrated it from the back, again, hardly missing his shoulder blade and coming out from the other side on the front. He needed to find assistance, and quick, before it infected itself. He carried the girl on his shoulders once again and started walking deep into the forest. "I hope I remember where Knothole is."

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Glossary and notes:

1. Mina's band. The band mostly consists of her, a chicken a monkey and a rabbit, characters which remain unnamed. Ash Mongoose was supposed to be the manager of the band, but he doesn't have a relationship with Mina in this fic, just in case you were asking.

2. A mason is defined as (from .com): A_ member of a widespread secret fraternal order pledged to mutual assistance and brotherly love. _

3. Eggman will have the looks he has on Sonic Avneture, SA2 and so on. No, he won't look like the Robotnik of SU.

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You see the button? Is begging you to click it! It say "Click me... I gotta feed my family.... My wife and two children..." So do it now! Mrs. Button and the little icons need turkey for dinner! :'D They thank you!


	4. Getting to Know You

Author's Notes: Another rewritten chapter, can't talk now, I am in a hurry. Byeeeeeee... **

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**

Chapter III: Getting to Know You

"Ow!"

"Don't move, or you may untie the stitches and we would have to start again."

"I know, I know."

Mina woke up with a killing headache. She couldn't really remember what happened since her head was still spinning; she put her hand over a soft texture, just like her bed.

Wait, her bed? Wasn't she still at the base? What exactly happened? She slowly put her bare feet on the soft, velvety floor and stepped up from the bed. She recognized the space she was at: Flower-patterned wallpaper, some band posters, post-it notes with random lyrics of songs, a small guitar on a corner; she was in her room. She felt relieved, she was at home once again; but that feeling didn't last long as she remembered what happened. That hedgehog guy, he had taken the emerald from her. She kicked the bed angrily at her stupidity, and muffled under her breath.

"How could you be so stupid Mina! You big idiot! Getting yourself fooled by every pretty boy that crosses your way! Twice!" She thought. However, just before she could complete her thoughts, a little, high-pitched scream was heard downstairs, followed by some words.

"Goddamn it! That hurt." A masculine, but young voice said.

"Don't swear." A feminine voice answered.

"Sorry, my bad."

Mina quickly ran downstairs, just to find her mother sitting with a green, young hedgehog male. Her mother didn't notice her as she was concentrated in stitching a wound on the guy.

"Almost done…." The woman's tongue stuck out slightly as a sign of concentration. "There, that should do. Just don't move too much, ok? It needs time to…" She turned around, to see the younger mongoose female watching the scene. "Mina?" She stepped off the couch. "Mina, sweetheart… how are you feeling?"

"What is he doing here?" Mina pointed at the hedgehog boy who did nothing but strike a shy smile.

"Mina-"

"And where the heck's the emerald?" Mina walked around the room searching, ignoring her mother and the visitor until she found what she was looking for, the brown bag. She opened it, still ignoring her mother's requests and took out the blue, shining jewel. "You're lucky you didn't miss it, or I would pry your head open." Then, without her seeing it coming, her mother angrily slapped her hand, making her drop the jewel. "Ow! Momma!"

"That's how you treat your guests?"

"What? He's not a guest! He's a little-"

"Hold your words lady!"

"But-"

"Mina!"

Mina remained quiet, her face that of a little grumpy child, the hedgehog snickered a little.

"What're you laughing at?" She asked angrily.

"Nothing." He said with a silly expression, Mina sighed.

"Momma, we shouldn't have him here! He's a thief! He was at the base, stealing!"

"And what were you doing there at the base as well, hmm?"

"I…"

Her mother stared at her in disappointment. "That was a highly irresponsible thing you did, going to an Egg Base is suicidal! What exactly were you thinking?" The young mongoose remained silent and ashamed. "Good thing Manic saved you."

"Wait… who?"

"Manic."

"That's me." Both turned their heads to see the hedgehog, who was waving his hand. "Hi." He smiled.

"You can't be serious. That's what he told you?"

"He didn't tell me anything. He brought you home, you were unconscious, and he was bleeding." The mother pointed at the wound. "He had been shot." Mina looked at the wound and frowned as everyone remained silent. "Don't you have anything to say?"

"What?"

"Like 'sorry' or something?"

"Gah alright." Mina let out an exhasperated sigh. "I'm sorry."

"Never mind that." Manic smiled. "Well, I suppose I'll be going."

"Going where?" Mina's mother asked.

"Nah, I can't stay here, I don't want to be a bother."

"Absolutely not, young man! You're not being a bother! Not at all! What is more, I insist that you stay here for the night, I mean, you look hungry."

"Momma-" Mina whispered in disagreement between her teeth, only to be shushed.

"Well- yeah." He smiled. "Maybe just a little."

"And, no offense," She continued. "but you could have a shower as well."

He chucked softly. "Yeah, I suppose."

"So it's done! You're staying here until tomorrow, ok? Now, I'll go prepare your bed, Mina can go help cook dinner…"

Manic turned his view to the mongoose girl, who was staring at him harshly, and he sure believed he felt a mental shiver inside him.

After a while, Mina and her mother started cooking dinner; Mina washed and peel the vegetables while her mom baked the potatoes and cooked the meat in the oven. The delicious smell reached Manic's nostrils and his stomach rumbled and roared endlessly. Mina's mother looked at the young hedgehog man standing there with the looks of a stray dog which had not eaten in days and laughed. "You hungry Manic?"

He scratched his back in embarrassment and smiled weakly. "Well, it has been a long time since I didn't have such delicious food to eat."

She laughed while Mina rolled her eyes. "Well, I guess you're a lucky guy, we'll be having dinner in a moment."

"Well yeah… um, I'll go take my shower now."

"Oh alright, just wait a second-" She turned to her daughter. "Mina, could you please get Manic some towels?"

Mina left everything she was doing and went upstairs with Manic. She stopped in front of a closet and opened it, then got some towels and closed it. She kept going until they reached a door and opened it, revealing the bathroom.

"Okay." Mina started explaining: "There are the shampoo, conditioner, and the soap-" She pointed two bottles, blue and cyan and a bar of soap respectively. "Don't throw water outside the tub, that's why we've got curtains and don't you think about coming naked out of the bathroom, I have enough things to worry about." With that she went downstairs, obviously she was still angry, but Manic didn't give it much of an importance, since he knew she would get over it sooner or later.

After Mina left he closed the door and put the lock on, he didn't want to make the ladies feel uncomfortable. He put the towel on the bar where the curtain hung, took his clothes off, got into the tub and turned the water on. He first let the warm water fall on him smoothly, letting him relax for a while, then he took the soap and started washing himself with it, he started coughing but he paid it no mind. Then again he coughed, again and again, hacking and coughing fervently, like an endless routine, he knew this was something serious now, he was having an attack.

Meanwhile, Mina and her mother kept talking on the kitchen while preparing dinner.

"Momma-" Mina started. "He'll steal something sooner or later."

"Oh for Aurora's sake Mina!" Her mother finally said. "He's a good man, if he weren't, he would have left you for dead!"

"I don't personally believe he saved me mom."

"He brought you here, you were unconscious, he definitely did."

She sighed. "Well whatever."

"Besides…" She smiled. "He's a pretty handsome guy, now isn't him?"

"Oh stop with that mom. I don't want anything with men anymore, is a waste of time."

"…Are you saying this because of what happened with him?"

She remained silent for a while. "I was too young… and too stupid. After all, he wouldn't care about a country girl, he had a princess."

"You're a princess too Mina, don't let anyone convince you of the contrary."

She smiled. "Thanks momma." She remained silent for a while. "But I gotta admit he's good looking." Both laughed shortly, and she talked again. "Why didn't you take him to a doctor?"

"What?"

"He's got a bullet wound on his shoulder, don't you think he should be taken to a doctor?"

"When your father was a soldier for the kingdom, I took a small course of medicine, I was almost a nurse." She answered. "I took a look to the wound, it came clean through and did not damage bones or nerves, which is really lucky on Manic's part. Stitching it seemed the best option. He'll be fine, don't worry."

But Manic was everything but fine at that time. The coughing became more and more severe and Manic was hacking his lungs out; and then, without expecting it, a bolt of nausea came upon him and he dropped everything in his stomach on the tub. A mess of whatever he had eaten and a large amount of blood started filtrating out to the sewer, and Manic felt so tired his legs gave in and he slipped to end face down on the tub floor with a large clank, loud enough to catch the attention of the two women down in the kitchen.

"What was that?" Mina asked.

"My god, Manic…" Her mother guessed as Mina ran upstairs to check on the hedgehog. She turned the handle of the door just to find it locked and knocked on the door instead.

"Manic? Are you okay?" The tone in her voice, first cynical and angry towards him had turned of concern, she placed her right ear on the door, hearing the sound of running water and soft panting. "Manic?"

Manic heard her from the other side, he was still conscious, but he was exhausted. He slightly shook and trembled, but managed to make a response still lying on the tub floor, loud enough for Mina to hear: "I'm- I'm fine."

"What happened?"

"I… I slipped. Don't worry, is nothing serious."

Mina still felt uneasy, she felt something was wrong, but decided not to mind it since he said he was "fine". "Okay, dinner's almost ready, hurry up with that shower, ok?"

"OK." With that, Mina walked downstairs. Manic still laid on the floor, slightly shaking and curled up in a ball, letting the pain go away for a while.

After dinner everyone prepared themselves for sleep, Manic went into what used to be Mina's father's studio inside the house, now the guests' room. He put the brown backpack on a table near the bed and opened it. He took out what seemed to be a small, white plastic container and opened it, letting two small pills fall on his hand. He did a quick motion and swallowed them crudely, then closed the container and put it on his bag again. He was ready to go to sleep until he heard something coming from downstairs.

"Absolutely not! I'm not letting you do this! You think this is a game?"

"If I thought it were, I wouldn't be doing this!"

He slowly opened the door and walked downstairs to see Mina and her mother having an argument.

"I will not lose my only daughter. For the love of the gods Mina! Mobians are dying because they decide to fight!"

"For freedom! They are fighting to set us free! You think that's not worth it?"

"Is not worth it if you're going to die young for a… a dream!" Mina gave an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes in response, however, her mother kept going. "I thought we had talked about this Mina, I thought you wanted to give up on this Freedom Fighter stuff and become a singer."

"I thought so too momma! But-" She looked at her mother in disbelief. "You actually think that is enough? Every single time, I hear of people who die, everywhere, for this cause, and I feel like I'm doing nothing. I mean, I am singing for the Resistance, but I can not feel like I'm doing good singing and making records and concerts and going famous while people keep dying every single day!"

"Mina, it IS enough, you're doing the best you can."

"Is not enough. Is never enough! I want to feel like I'm needed! I don't want-" She sighed. "I don't want to be useless."

Manic meanwhile frowned, those words seemed familiar. Of course, he had felt the same several times with his brother and sister, and that had been the reason why he left them behind, that had been the reason of everything that was happening now. He slowly left them both and walked upstairs as an uncomfortable silence invaded the room.

He woke up in the early morning; the sun didn't come out yet, but the sky was painted with shades of blue and orange. He put on some pants, a white t-shirt, his old red sneakers and a gray-ish jacket for the morning cold. He slowly left the room and did the same as he walked downstairs. He was ready to open the door until…

"Do you normally leave without saying goodbye?"

He turned around to see Mina's mother sitting in a couch. "Oh, I'm sorry Isabella, I just didn't want to wake you up."

"I was awake for a long time now, I had to say goodbye to someone."

"Someone?"

"Mina's leaving."

He frowned. "Mina? Mina's… leaving?" The mongoose nodded. "Leaving where?"

"To whenever resistance members are."

"I thought this was the place for resistance members."

"It is, but now they are in all parts of the world, maybe… she'll find some group and settle up and fight like she used to do when she met-" She sighed. "When she met him."

"Who?"

"Sonic."

Manic frowned even more. She knew his brother? How on Mobius did she knew him…? Well, that would have to wait. "I gotta leave now."

"I hope you have a good journey Manic."

"I hope Mina will find what she wants."

"Me too."

With that, he left the house and started walking, only to find that someone, not very afar from there he found someone staring in direction to the house. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm just… I dunno." Mina answered, her face was one of silent sadness.

"If you're not sure of what you're gonna do, don't do it. Your mother loves you and she doesn't wanna see you get hurt."

"Who told you that, she did?" She said, as if she were acusing him of getting into her business, but he remained quiet.

"I figured myself."

She sighed. "I have to do this."

He remained silent while he stared sternly at her. "Do you have any idea where they are?"

"Well… I know some are in the Acorn Kingdom." He pressed his lips together and frowned. "Okay, maybe I don't know much but-"

"Okay, listen." He started. "I'm going to Robotropolis, I know a place where Freedom Fighters reunite very often, I can take you there, but nothing else."

She opened her eyes wide. "You serious?"

"Yeah."

She smiled. "I guess you're not much of a lost case after all."

"Thanks, I highly appreciate that. Now come on, we have to get going if we're going to be there soon."

They started walking to the north entrance to Knothole, just as Mina gave her last took to the house, in a signal of a new step in her life had made the first step.

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THOU SHALLT LEAVE A CRITIQUE DO IT DO IT DOIT


	5. The Messengers

Disclaimer: Well, first of all, I do not own Manic or any Sonic character who appears here, they are property of Sega, Dic and Archie respectively. I guess that's all then.

Author's Notes: My gosh, I'm so proud of this chapter! It turned out sooo coool!! :3 Well. Here's another one, and here comes a new character, one of my favorites after Manic of course, who would it be? XD You all know who he is... no you don't XD Well, whith this said, please enjoy this chapter!! And please leave a comment or critique. Thank you!

* * *

Chapter IV: The Messengers

They went to the north again, to the station. Mina insisted on paying the tickets, she went to the ticket booth and took her wallet out of her jacket's pocket.

"Two tickets, second class please."

"To where?"

"Manic to-" But Manic wasn't beside her anymore. "Manic? Excuse me for a second. Manic! Manic where are you?"

"Miss, I would recommend you to hurry up, there are people who are waiting to be attended."

"There's no one behind me."

"I don't care, hurry up or you'll receive no service."

"But-"

"Hey Mina!"

Mina almost jumped when she felt a hand over her shoulder. "Manic, where the heck have you been-?"

"What cha doing, I already got the tickets."

"But, but how-"

"Come on." He pulled her out of that place and drove her to the waiting line for the express.

"Where are we going?"

"To Mobodoon."

"But, there's no train to Mobodoon."

"We're taking a turn to Galera City and we're heading to Mobodoon the day after."

"OK."

The metro arrived. It was a bright red and golden striped express.

"Let's go." Indicated Manic. They got inside and sat, Manic felt more comfortable than ever, he knew that stealing those tickets had been a good idea.

"How did you get the tickets?" She asked. Manic looked at her with a rather lazy expression. "Huh?"

"The tickets…where did you get so much money to afford them?"

"What, you don't believe I bought them?"

"Those tickets are too expensive… not even all my money is enough to get just one. And you had two."

Manic sighed and passed his hand through his hair. "Well-"

"Did you steal them?"

"Maybe I did…"

"WHAT?!" Every noble looked up in response to Mina's high-pitched shriek.

"Shh, shh." Said Manic nervously. "It's not a big deal."

"It's not a big deal? Of course it is! What are you, a thief? Are you some sort of dirty buglar?"

"YES." He answered firmly. "I am a thief."

"What?" Mina chuckled in a jokingly tone. "You can't be serious."

"Like hell I'm serious." He said, he didn't seem to care if anyone heard him. Mina didn't say anything for a moment. "Since when?"

"Since I have a memory; can we stop talking about this? I don't feel comfortable talking about it around these… people…"

"I'm sorry."

"Is cool." He said taking a magazine from a pocket next to the seat, since he didn't have anything else to do except for reading one of those lousy tabloids, well… it was better than dying of boredom.

The train started running at full speed, Manic had ordered a few of those 'dishes' served while you trip, Mina just had a glass of water. The trip from the station to Mobodoon was a long one, but Manic didn't have any intentions of having a nap, he was remembering something…

* * *

_"You got caught again?" _

_"Yeah…" Manic touched his mouth gently, it was slowly bleeding. Manic got caught stealing at a house; it didn't take him much time to realize that the house where he had been stealing three times already was of a noble Mafia, and that they were waiting for him. He was cornered by them, beaten, harassed and kicked back again to the streets. And it was winter. When he had reached his "home", he was shaking, covered by red-colored snow, he had a black eye, bruises on his face, and his mouth and other parts of his body were bleeding. _

_"I hate nobles." He said all of a sudden. _

_"Yeah, I know. Stop touching your mouth you will make it worse." Farrel softly slapped Manic's hand from his mouth. _

_"It hurts." _

_"I know, but it will infect itself if you keep touching it." He took a towel and poured some strange liquid on it. "Now this will hurt you a little bit, so I want you to stay quiet." _

_"OK." _

_Farrel passed the wet drape over one of the hedgehog's wounds, who only made a grunt in response to the contact with the burning liquid. _

_"You see it wasn't that bad! It was just a-" But before he could finish his sentence, he saw tears clouding the green hedgehog's hardened gaze, and he was sure that wasn't because of the disinfectant. _

* * *

The flashback was interrupted when Manic felt something on his shoulder, his face started to turn red when he saw that Mina had fallen asleep over him, and her head was on his shoulder. He stared at her for a moment and smiled, he couldn't just stay like nothing over that scene. But again, he turned his view to the window, there was still more stuff to see.

After a few hours they had reached the next station. Galera city, was, the cleanest and driest city of whole Mobius. Most of the buildings had a pearl white color, and its streets were similar to a view of a Spanish city. Most of the people there didn't speak much English.

"This place is gorgeous." Said Mina, looking around the place.

"We can't stay too long. We must arrive to Mobodoon before nighttime, it will be too dark if we don't."

"So to where now?"

"To the Norwest. We must pass through the Mobian dessert, through the Sand Snare Drum, is the safest way to walk through the dessert, and so we will walk a few miles and we'll reach Mobodoon." He said while he showed up an old map. "So, let's get going." He reached Solar out of his bag and stepped on it, he pulled Mina up on the board and headed to Mobodoon.

As they rode, the dessert sand were redder and hotter, finally they had reached the canyon known as the Sand Snare Drum, the hills inside were high and red, Mina looked up, the sky was still blue.

"We're almost reaching the exit." Added Manic. Mina felt the sand in her eyes and covered them.

"Sorry, but I have no more goggles, I'll get some for you one of these days."

"You better will."

Manic laughed at the comment, and just in time when they reached the high land again.

"This here is how Galerians pass to the other cities for a better life. I can understand, Galera is not the best place to live."

"But it looked so pretty…"

"Yeah, but the desert is a dangerous place, you know that?" He stepped out of the board and took it around his arm, Mina followed.

"Yeah, I think you maybe are right…hey wait for me! Manic!" He did not listen, he kept rinning up to a small sand hill and stayed there like a statue, it looked like he found something.

"Manic, what's wrong? Manic?" She climbed up the hill. "Manic, what is… Oh."

She then knew what he was staring at. There above was an area that looked like a circle of sand, there rested the dead bodies of Galera travelers and merchants, lots of them lied there, apparently dead.

"Oh no." Manic whispered. He threw the board and rushed to the scene, Mina followed in a less fluid way. The bodies had been tortured in a way that would horrify the expectator, for Manic, it wasn't nothing that he could turn back to. He put his hands over one of the victim's heads. "He died a few minutes ago." He turned his head. "And I suppose his fellas had the same destiny as well."

"Who could have done this?" Said Mina rather horrified.

"Some goddamn bastard." He said walking closer to her.

"Only one person did this?"

"Yes."

"Manic, your voice sounds strange, do you have a cold?" She asked.

"I never said that Mina."

"No he didn't." Manic turned his head quickly, there was a slightly diffused figure near the bodies. "Long time no see, Manic; it has been a while since that incident on our base.." The figure drew closer to them Manic recognized it quickly. "DAMN!" He thought.

"What brings you here? Was it the smell of the rotting flesh of my victims…"

"So you killed them." Manic assumed, Mina watched scared as both of them discussed.

"You could say that, scaredy cats, running from place to place, they moved so much they sure were a pain. The hunt was worth it though, after all, you're finally here-"

"You sonuvabitch!" Said Manic at the same time that his fangs came out to light.

"Manic." Mina said as if it was a nag, but her voice was soft and worried. The figure walked close to them, it was a pale blue echidna, strange since most of them came in variations of red. He was wearing a long cape decorated with a golden collar.

"You guys think that you can do this to others, who the hell you think you-"

"The Dark Legion of course. A new kind of mercenaries that only seeks for the cleanse of mobius against the impure and the human race, who have made a world an unloving place."

"The only thing you seek for is another holocaust." Manic answered. "And by that it doesn't make you different from humans."

"Of course some sacrifices have to be made Manic. Perhaps your little friend is willing to sacrifice."

Mina gasped to the though. Manic pushed her slightly behind her and snarled more as his quills bristled. "Don't you dare to touch her."

"What will you do if I do Manic?" The echidna asked defiantly, smiling softly. "Will you rip off my arms like you swore to do with Lord Dimitri? Now that's good, I bet no one of us will forget that line…" Manic watched as the echidna's hand's started to disappear within his clothes. "…And I'll make sure you don't forget me either."

With that said, the echidna's neck started to grow from above their heads, his long, black cape fell, revealing a worm-like almost transparent blue body. His stomach and brains showed from beneath his skin, which started to leak with a drooly liquid like saliva. His head had also changed, it was bigger and several marks adorned his face and hairs, which were the only "normal" things that were left from his old self. Manic and Mina watched in astonishment as a 15 meters worm elevated his head far from the ground.

"Also, let me introduce myself." He said in his typical voice. "My name is Elijah."

Then an attack was unleashed from the echidna worm, his head extended in order to eat his adversaries; Manic reacted quickly and stomped the floor, and a mass of rock surrounded them curling in a ball. The only thing Elijah got from them was a hit against a solid wall.

"Heh heh, you surprise me Manic! You sure have grown in strength, but you won't get easy on me!" Mina and Manic heard his voice from outside, and the wall started to leak, Mina made a short scream as Manic heard the hiss from the walls at the contact with the strange liquid, and watched as they disintegrated.

"GODDAMNIT!" He screamed and punched the wall, liberating a small piece of rock fly to Elijah, which he swiftly evaded, but he sure didn't evaded Manic when he charged to him. Elijah bared his fangs in response to Manic's attempt, and he himself attempted to eat Mina who was trying to help his friend. Manic stopped the attack by holding the gigantic mouth wide open, Elijah unleashed an animal roar and a storm of worm drool that fell on the hero's face, but didn't move him from his place.

"Mina, run away! Hurry!"

Mina incorporated, and saw how Manic put his life in danger when holding the worm. "But Manic-"

"Go, now!"

"I won't leave you!"

"DO AS I SAY DAMNIT!" Now Manic's hurried demand made her try to run away. Manic was relieved and didn't expect Elijah to use his tail as a leash against Manic who hit him towards the ground. Elijah charged himself towards Mina, who was paralyzed at the sight of the monsters teeth getting closer each second. It was all over for her.

And then, a bang. Elijah's eye started to bleed as he stepped back from Mina making a roar of pain. Manic stood silent. "What is that?" He thought to himself as he heard the sound of a motorcycle approaching, a black figure appeared from the horizon and shot bullets that strongly hit the worm. The figure approached and jumped from the motorcycle and fell to the ground. Elijah made an echoed roar and attempted to devour him, but failed, he was to fast.

"Sonic?"

He ran in circles while shooting. Tired of it, the worm unleashed his tail against him and his gun fled away, he evaded the other tail swift after the last attack and landed in front of Manic.

"Sonic? No it can't be…." He looked closer at the strange figure that looked a little familiar.

"I hope I'm not late." His voice was low and cold; and matched perfectly with his black body adorned with red quills. He was wearing black pants and strange shoes, his eyes were covered by black sunglasses. He was carrying what looked like a sword too.

"She would have had her head ripped off."

"This is wrong." Said Elijah stepping slowly from the ground still in worm form. "The last time I checked there was only one hedgehog."

"Well now we're two." Said the black hedgehog. "You better walk away from the prince and the lady, legionist."

"Walk away? HAH! Real funny hedgehog, lets see how funny you will be inside my stomach!!" And with this said he extended his neck and intended to devour the hedgehog, which jumped on the air above him screaming: "Chaos Spear!" And an avalanche of yellow rays was unleashed from the sky hurting the beast which fell to the ground at the same time the black hedgehog did. He looked at his opponent thrown on the floor apparently dead. To this sight, he started to walk closer to him; and the beast woke up from his lap and hit him away; then proceeded to grab Mina and squeeze her with his tail.

"Do you like this now?! Huh?! Do you?!"

The words of Elijah echoed into Manic's mind, who reminded him of how he was treated once, tortured and treated like something unloving, his Mind started to slowly shut down, as he heard only the screams from Mina and Elijah's words:

"Do you like it now?"

"Do you like it now?!"

"DO YOU!!"

"NOOOOOOOO!!" Manic's scream was vivid and frightening, it was more like a roar from a rampant beast than a scream. And so as a beast he ran and in the blink of an eye, he was attacking Elijah. Manic had superstrenght since years ago, and he did not waste it, after liberating Mina he started to attack ferociously. Punches and kicks, even bites if necessary, he could see nothing but the enemy nor hear anything but his agonized screams. But he didn't stop there, he was about to end it all, for the echidna, it was all about to end.

"Manic!" He woke up from his trance and looked at Mina. "I'm fine! Is all over now!"

He looked at the dropped beast on the floor, he was breathing slowly but loudly. "Sorry." He muttered, but not to him. Elijah suddenly started to change slowly to his old self, the black hedgehog grabbed him from the collar. "You're a legionist, aren't you?"

"And proud hedgehog. You all should be afraid; Lord Dimitri, Finitevus and Lien-Da have a master plan. The Dark Legion shall rise to its maximum glory, Enerjak will return, and all will start and end with him…"

Mina knew who Enerjak was, he was powerful enough to make Mobius explode. She knew the world would be, once again, in danger. "Not again… oh no."

"Who is this Enerjak you are talking about?" Asked Manic with a glare.

"You will find out soon, prince." He said as he disintegrated into a group of moths that fled to the sky.

"Is he dead?" Asked Manic.

"I don't think so." The hedgehog answered as he walked to his motorcycle.

"Who are you?" Manic asked again, the hedgehog didn't turn around.

"My name is Shadow. I came here to make sure you and the prince are safe and to give you information."

"Now what's up with the prince thing?" Asked Mina from behind. "If you guys have something between hands say it now! Why are you calling him prince?"

"Your friend here is Prince Magnus the fourth, better known as Manic the Hedgehog, he's the prince of the empire, the son of Queen Aleena."

Mina's eyes opened widely. "You're what?"

"I-"

"Together, the royal children have fought as the leaders of the freedom fighters; he is one of them, along with his brother Sonic."

Mina's eyes opened even wider, like they were about to drop from her face. "YOU'RE SONIC'S BROTHER?!"

"I was about to tell you!"

"Yeah right you weren't! I knew that you knew more about him that 'jus herd uf him'!" She mocked at the end. "Oh, you're such a…!" And she didn't get to end it when she groaned and walked away.

"Mina wait!"

"NO!"

Manic sighed and put a hand over his head while Shadow watched form behind. "What's wrong with her?"

"Is a long story…"

"You better go talk with your girlfriend."

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" He yelled as his quills bristled and his face reddened as well.

"Hmph, whatever. Just go talk with before she gets in more trouble." He said walking to his motorcycle and sitting on. Manic sighed and proceeded with what he had been told.

"Mina are you OK?" He spoke. She did not move nor did anything, she just stood there.

"I'm fine, just leave me alone."

"Look, I'm sorry."

Mina sighed. "Manic, maybe I'm not the strongest or smartest girl in the world." She made a small pause before saying anything else. "But I do have feelings."

"Yeah, you don't think I do? That's why I didn't tell you anything, because I knew that… my brother had hurt you. You looked very happy, I didn't want it all to go away. I know it sounds stupid but-"

"Who told you all that? Mom?" Manic nodded.

Mina didn't say anything, she knew that it wasn't his fault, he, after all, he wasn't Sonic, he was different from him.

"You know, I had another lover after Sonic."

"Yeah?"

"Aha, but it didn't work out, we weren't one for each other."

"I guess you should try again then. You will find someone who appreciates you the way you deserve. I know it."

Mina smiled slightly, but then it vanished for a moment. "You scared us all with that fit of yours."

"Ah, that?" He lowered his head. "Yeah. I don't know what happened to me. It was something that doesn't happen often."

"Is that your power?"

"One of them."

"What else can you do, heal?" She pointed at his arm, which was fully healed. "Yeah, pretty much. These powers allow me to attack without distractions. It can be useful, but… as you saw…"

"Yeah."

"I can't let it consume me. This world has enough things to care of. I don't want to be one of them." He whistled and before the blink of an eye, the hoverboard was floating in front of him. "We better leave. It's getting late."

With his power, Manic controlled a wave of earth and dirt to bury the bodies, he closed his eyes and prayed.

_"Mother Aurora, please be compassionate of these souls that have fallen today this tragical noon. May they walk by your side at every moment and may you let them rest in peace at your homeplace. All this, is what I ask, a humble servant of your reign and shall the light of your grace protect those innocents whose tired faces reveal the need of belief. Thank you."_

Mina then, started singing softly a workshipping song in ancient mobian. Manic was moved by the soft, feminine tone of her voice, he, never in his life had heard such a magnificent voice from a woman, not even his sister was a match for her. Yet, he tried to remain concentrated on his prayers, this wasn't time for musical appreciation. In war time, there wasn't time for anything at all.

After a while, shadow had ordered Mina to put her bags over the back seat of his motorcycle. Manic started talking with him.

"So what's this information you were talkin' about?"

"The doctor is planning something. He's making, stronger and more resistive robots. I know it, one of those made this." He showed a small scar on his arm. "He's also planning on doing something to the roboticized people, I'm not quite sure what it will be, but it can' be anything good."

Manic couldn't avoid feeling worried at the mention of the roboticized people. If Shadow was right, then Farrell was in trouble. He had to hurry up with the machine and get Farrell quick, before it was too late.

"Also, from what I've seen, you seem to be persecuted by the Legion."

Manic hurried up in an instant. "Yeah, I wonder why, I mean, what the hell is wrong with them?"

"He said you destroyed their base." Mina reminded him.

"Oh- yeah! You're right, how could I forget. So many battles that I lose the sense of time, heh."

* * *

When things got arranged, they were on their way to Mobodoon, Mina rode with Shadow on his motorcycle while Manic drove his board. Finally they reached the zone, which was protected by a whirling portal.

"You better not touch that thing Shad." Said Manic approaching to the portal. "It has been reforced since the last time I visited this place. However…" He touched his medallion, which glowed and the portal vanished quickly.

"I know how to deal with it." Shadow without asking entered the city, Mina and Manic followed.

"It's beautiful!" Mina looked around in amazement. "How come I've never seen this place before?"

"It must be protected, here are things that the Doc shouldn't get his hands on." Said Manic.

"Who are you black hedgehog?" Shadow looked up to see a horse woman. "What business do you have on the holy earth of our city?"

"That's none of your business horse-"

"Shadow shut up." Manic said quickly as he walked in front of him. "It's fine, they're with me."

The horse woman's eyes seemed to almost fall from her face in a sudden moment. "My-my prince? Manic? Is that you?"

"Heh."

"Oh dear mother Aurora!" She went to hug him. "Oh my, Manic, you're alive! Oh goddess I thought you were- my, look at you! You're so grown up! So tall."

Manic blushed. "Not like I have changed that much Major…"

"You did, you did change, just look at you! Your clothes, your height and… is that a new haircut? It was about time!"

"Aw come on!" He laughed. "Well, first things first. Me and my friends here Shadow and Mina need a place to stay, would you mind if we stood-"

"Absolutely not, my prince! You all could live here if you wanted!"

Manic shook his head. "No, is just for one night, we gotta leave in the morning."

"But, you can't leave!" She said making gestures with her hands. "You just came here, you can't leave so soon!"

"I dunno." Manic turned his eyes to one side. "We don't want to be a bother."

The major laughed. "You think I helped your mother changing diapers just for a bunch of money? You know that we don't use that here! Besides, we like to treat our guest, especially the royal family members and friends with the best…"

Mina raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"We got…" She got closer to them like she would reveal the location of an oil spot. "A hot spring."

Manic's eyes seemed to shrink. "A hot spring? You mean… one of those hot, pool thingies?"

"You've never been in a hot spring before?" Manic shrugged like saying 'Not my fault'. The Major laughed at them.

"Yes, that. Is actually a spa also. We've got the best massagers and professionals to attend you like the royal you are, and of course your buddies." She looked up to Mina and Shadow, who raised an eyebrow.

"Well… I think we can stay for two days minimum. It can't hurt us."

Mina almost jumped in excitement. "Yes! We're gonna have so much fun! Is gonna be like, some mini-vacations! Oh, thank you so much miss!"

"Is not a problem lady!"

Shadow, however didn't seem to agree. "We shouldn't stay here that much. Eggman and… 'You-know-who are after us. Is irresponsible to forget about our tasks."

"We're not forgetting about them. We're just relaxing a bit for a while. Now…" He clasped his hands together. "Were do we go?"

The major made a sign with her hands. "Please follow me." Manic and Mina followed, but Shadow stood there.

"Shadow, aren't you coming?"

"You keep going, I'll catch up later." With this said, they kept up walking, Mina turned to Manic.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Maybe he's just angry, I dunno, I just met him."

Shadow walked to the portal and studied it closely. He took out of his pockets what seemed to be a cellphone and pushed a button.

"Shadow reporting sir, I'm in."

"Good." A voice resonated from the device. "Anything of interest."

"There is something that might interest the Thorndykes, technology from mobian origin, some kind of 'portal' that's how they call it."

"I'll tell them." Then the voices seemed far, another voice could be heard, then the original one returned. "Send them something, I don't know, a picture."

"Fine." Shadow proceeded to take a picture then. He pushed some buttons and then got the cellphone to his ear again. "Done. Should that help?"

"…They say that it should. Something else Shadow, what about the objective?"

"Is settled, he's with me, I've gained his trust."

"Excellent, you think it could be him."

"Shadow thought for a moment. "It seems to be him. He is like you described: green fur, blue eyes, titanic strength, etc. However, there are some 'fits' of his personality that I still need to study, I'll call when I get something. You keep going with your duties, we shall meet soon."

"We will. Continue with the mission then."

"Roger that." He finally closed the cellphone and walked to the place where Manic and Mina were staying. It was a place where the walls were all pearl white and marble colored. He walked inside one of the rooms and found Mina arranging her stuff. "Ah there you are! Could you help me with this?" Shadow didn't answer, nor did anything. Mina sighed. "Look, I know you must be angry, but this is just a temporary thing, we'll be gone after tomorrow."

"I never said I was angry."

"Oh, alright then." She continued unpacking his stuff. "You wanna talk with Manic? He's at the room at the end of the aisle. Yours is the one next to mine."

Shadow looked at his side and then turned his head to Mina. "He's not there."

"He's not?"

"No."

"Oh." Mina shrugged. "Then, I've got no idea where he should be."

* * *

"I wish I could say this place brings back memories." Manic looked to the horizon, which was no longer visible. Only the stars were standing on the dark night. "But I've got no memories to share."

"It's sad isn't it?" Said the Major, sitting on a table at the wide balcony. "How a mother's bond to it's children can be damaged by just one person."

"It's fine." He said. "I never felt alone. I had Farrell."

"Who?"

"Farrell, my mentor. He was something like my father, heh." Manic laughed. "The poor bastard was a no one, he had to steal for a living, we all had to. We couldn't afford anything. But you know what's the funny thing about all this? He had nothing, nothing. And when he found me, he took me like a son, he decided to give his life for me. And he had nothing to give, only…"

"His life I know."

Manic sighed softly and smirked.

"I think, the nature of the mobians is complicated. You don't know someone until you really get to meet them."

"The nature of the mobians is stupid." He stated. "We don't seem to notice that the world is falling apart, yet we keep on trying and trying and trying..."

"We've got nothing left to do Manic. Is the only thing we can do, try, like your mother did."

"Is she alive?"

"… I don't know, but, after that…." She looked at the floor. "I think you should go to sleep Manic."

"Yeah, you're right. Shhe you in the morning, and thanks for everything."

"Good night."

He went to his room and undressed. He put some sleeping clothes and pulled the covers off the bed, he reached a portrait on his desk. There was Queen Aleena, holding his children, and of course, as expected, he was on the corner. He laughed, he knew that he couldn't be jealous. He felt fortunate, he knew that someone, in that instant was worse than he was. Someone was starving to death, or some kid was holding the hand of his deceased parent, reciting an old mobian poem called "We'll run to the Park". He looked at his brother and sister, he, deep inside missed them. He wanted to loathe them, for not believing in him before, but he couldn't. And he hated himself for that. In a rush of anger, he wanted to toss the portrait to the floor so hard the glass would reach his legs and cut him. But he simply stopped. He sat on the bed and hugged the picture like a newborn child. He swallowed deeply retaining himself; he was too big for tears.

He put the picture in its place and reached the container from its bag. He swallowed the pills and put them back on their place, he got in bed and finally gave up to the need of sleep.


	6. Memoirs of Mobodoon

Disclaimer: Well, first of all, I do not own Manic or any Sonic character who appears here, they are property of Sega, Dic and Archie respectively. I guess that's all then.

Author's Notes: This chapter is a piece of CRAP. GOSH! I got so tired when doing it, but I had to finish it, so. Well, here goes my dedication,, and this one is for the Manic fangirls :D Since I am one as well, I couldn't avoid writing this perverted assload XDDD So, this goes for you girls!! (And for you guys STFU). Nothing much interesting happens here tho', but don't worry, the next chapter is going to be REVOLUTIONARY, so please keep reading and enjoy :)

BTW, I tend to look at hedgehog bodies in a different way... a beefier, human-like, way. Don't blame me plz.

* * *

Chapter V: Memoirs of Mobodoon

Days have passed since Sonic, Sonia and the rest of the group had talked with the widow and his daughter at the refugee tent. They saw a hedgehog going to the southwest, a green one.

"Sonic go slower!!" Yelled Sonia, trying to hold on to her brother's hand.

"What? You can't keep up anymore?" He turned his head, Sonia just glared.

"Just do it!"

"Aw come on!" He stopped. "Don't tell me how should I go, you know I can't go slow!"

"Well, if you were a little more patient I-"

"Guys, take a look at this!" Tails called from his Tornado while flying above. They turned around to see a giant Egg Base, which now was in ruins.

"Whoa. Cool!" Sonic ran to take a look closer into the ruins, Sonia called for him but it fell on deaf ears. When he got there, he saw an old friend. "Hey Espio, what 'cha doing?"

A purple chameleon turned around to look at the hedgehog. "Sonic. What are you doing here?"

"I was just asking the same. What happened here?"

"Apparently the base was discontinued. Something or someone made the systems fall apart. me, Vector, Charmy and the others are taking a look if we can find something that could be useful."

In that moment Sonia and Knuckles came. Sonic continued talking.

"Tell me something Espio, while you were here, did you guys happen to see a green hedgehog around here?"

"Scourge?"

"No, another green hedgehog, a hairy one, with a Mohawk."

"Hm. Not sure. Vector, come here!" He called. A few seconds later, a giant, green crocodile was in front of them.

"What is it- well look who's here!" He greeted. "Haven't seen you in months Sonic! What do you want?"

"They ask if there was a green hedgehog around here." Espio said expressionless. "And just before you ask is not Scourge."

"Oh, I'm sorry. But I don't think we've seen any hedgehog. However…" He pondered over his thoughts. "Mighty and Ray made contact with a mysterious green hedgehog last year."

Sonia's eyes opened wide, Sonic seemed more serene, but he was indeed surprised. "Really? Where?"

"Um… I don't remember. I think it was near the North Ice Cap, I don't know."

"The ice cap?" Sonia asked, she knew that his brother didn't like extreme temperatures.

"Why?"

Vector shrugged. "I'm not sure. Why do you ask?"

"We're trying to find this green hedgehog." Said Sonia. "He's our brother."

"Rrrreally?" Said Vector smirking. "Well, in that case, I'll contact you if we find something that might interest ya."

"Alright."

They got into the Tornado and started exploring the area; nothing green or spiky could be seen except for the pines around the forest. "It's useless, he must have left days ago." Sonia stated. "We're lost."

"No we're not… we're just, in the wrong way." Sonic corrected. "Alright, let's think. He can't be that far can he? And if he could, he can't just keep on running from place to place. He is definitely not that fast." He closed his eyes proudly, Sonia glared at him. "Through I hate you when you call us slow, you're right. He can't keep on walking. He must sleep or eat somewhere."

Amy's eyes opened wide. "Knothole Village!"

"What?" Sonia turned to her.

"Knothole! He must have been there! I mean, is the only place around that he could eat or sleep!"

"You're right! Tails, fly to Knothole. I know someone who could have seen him." Sonic stated.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Mobodoon. Mina and Shadow were having breakfast at a large table, Shadow ate slowly while Mina stared at him.

"You don't seem to eat much."

"And you seem to eat a lot for a girl." He pointed with the fork at Mina's plate, which was full of eggs, bacon, bread, pancakes and all the things someone could eat for breakfast, along with a glass of orange juice.

"Well… thanks." In that moment Manic had walked in. He was still half-asleep, his sleeping clothes, which were bigger than him, were hanging from his shoulders and waist. "Oh you're awake! How did you sleep?"

"Fine…" He yawned, his fangs seemed to shine with the light of the room. "However, the maidens woke me up against my will. They say I shouldn't sleep that much."

Mina laughed softly. "Fine, come here, have breakfast with us."

"OK." He took a plate from the table and stated serving himself. He took toasts, an egg and two pancakes. In that same moment the Major got in.

"Good morning! How did you sleep?"

"Fine." They said in unison. The major cleaned her throat before speaking again.

"Alright. The spa should be open until 5:00 pm, so get dressed and take this, this is a map to the location of the hot springs. You should take a turn here and walk a little and there you go!"

"Thanks major." Manic smiled. She bowed deeply.

"Everything you want you can ask me, I'll be there waiting for you. See you later." She left them and walked in route to the hotspring. They did the same after dressing and leaving the building.

* * *

The spa was like another world when inside. It was decorated in some sort of Japanese fashion, with bamboo plants here and there, almost everything was made of bamboo and silk. The walls were decorated with exquisite paintings and the place was just plain wonderful.

"Welcome to our spa, Prince Manic and his honorable friends. Said one of the three maidens crouching on the floor and bowing. "We are honored to have you here. If you need something from us, please don't doubt in asking." One of the maidens put a glass of iced tea on his left hand.

"Nah, don't worry, I feel just…ohhh…" He whispered as one of the maidens massaged his back softly.

"The locker rooms are at the end of the aisle. There are some towels there. The hot springs are at the other aisle, the girls one is at the right, the boys one at the left. Please enjoy."

They thanked the lady and went to the locker rooms. Mina went to the girls' hot spring with the maidens. They weren't as innocent as they seemed to be, they had more intelligence than even the major thought.

"…I mean, what the heck." The red-headed. "All the good men are taken."

The other ones nodded. "God, that black one sure is hot stuff. I mean, did you look at him? He had the tightest ass I ever seen." Said a blonde cat. Mina just listened, she was surprised on the Mr. Hyde's transformations of those girls, however, she liked them as she knew them the whole life, after so much years, she had found some friends that weren't sweaty and ferocious fighters. "Geez."

"But the prince… he's just sooo dreamy…" Another, the brunette said. "What do you think Mina?"

"Huh?"

"About prince Manic, you're his friend."

"Yeah."

"So… how is he?"

"Um… well, he's very nice and sweet… he's a very kind person and all."

"Well, yeah… but I didn't mean that. I mean if he has a good body, if he has muscles…"

"Oh well… he…" She reminded when she sneaked into the room after his shower. "You know, I don't feel comfortable talking with you about this, I mean, Manic is my friend. "

"Oh, alright." The red-head said. "I guess we'll have to figure out." She stepped out of the hotspring and blinked one eye. The other girls grinned evily and followed. Mina glanced at them and followed after a while.

Meanwhile Shadow stepped in front of the hot spring glancing at it. He thought everything was a waste of time: The hot spring, the spa, the city, everything. And he definitely was not getting his clothes off to get into there.

However Manic was, and Shadow realized that when the green hedgehog came wrapped in a towel and yelled: "Hey Shad, wanna see a friend?" with this said he unwrapped the towel in front of Shadow who covered his eyes slightly and groaned. "I never said yes!"

Manic laughed hard and loud. "Well Shad, there's nothing to be afraid of. Sorry, sorry… let me correct myself, There IS something!" He giggled. "But you don't have to be afraid! I mean, we both are the same, we have our…packages."

"Don't talk about it like you would talk of guns, please. You seriously gross me out, besides, this is a total waste of time; Eggman must be moving his forces by now… even the Dark Legion may be planning something by now."

"Oh come on, you ruin all the fun!" He jumped inside the hot spring splashing Shadow on his way, who only made a lack of amusement expression. He took a towel and dried his face.

"Fun? You think we've got so much time. We don't have time in case you didn't notice you little bastard!"

"Shad, don't make me hit you." Manic said, still in a playful manner. "Get a little bit more far and you will look like a hillbilly soon enough." Manic laughed to this thought. Shadow just glared at him.

"Agh. I give up." Shadow started walking to the door.

"Where are ya going?"

"Out. Until you decide to take things seriously."

"Oh come on Shad, I do take thing seriously, you don't have to-"

"Yeah I have. You don't take things seriously, you don't care that the Dark Legion is after you, you come here and forget about the mission and you bring a girl that does not do anything but getting caught."

"Please don't get Mina into this."

Coincidentally, Mina was walking close to the wooden bamboo walls that separated the boy's hot spring from the attempted aisle; she heard her name and put her ear over the bamboo wall.

"She doesn't defend herself, she can't fight, she can do nothing. In resume, that girl is a useless brat."

"She's not useless Shadow, she's just… inexpert."

"Not even an 'inexpert' would let itself get in danger so easily. She's nothing but a pain."

"Cut it out Shadow alright?" Manic said now talking seriously. "She just needs time, that's all."

"Alright time, I'll give her time. What is more, I'll give you both enough darned time."

"What do you want from me?"

"What do I want? I want you to teach her how to fight. There you go."

"Shadow, is not that easy."

"You wanted time, you've got it, now teach her to fight or I swear I'll-"

"OK, OK. I'll teach her to fight. Now I want you to do me a favor."

Mina put her ear away, she felt terrible. Shadow had called her useless, and Manic didn't seem to care much about it. She felt a little rush of anger towards them, only to be interrupted by one of the maids.

"Uh, we're not here to actually listen to them."

"What are you planning now?" Mina asked grimly. They were all in their clothes already, the redhead put an expression of seduction.

"Oh you don't have to be so harsh. Come on, I'll show ya." She walked to a back door which said "Employees only" and opened it. She silently walked in, making a sign to the rest of the girls, who walked in as well, in front of them was a little hill adorned with rocks and bushes; they climbed on and Mina followed. When she climbed up, it took her a short time to turn red and she turned to the girl.

"You brought me here?!"

"Aww, come on, we do this all the time."

"NO! I don't feel comfortable watching over my friends!"

"Shh, they will hear you."

"I don't care. I think is bad enough to come and listen to their conversations, but coming here when they are naked?!"

"Oh come on, you wanted to see the prince like this remember?"

"I never said-"

"Shh. Wait, they're saying something." Said the blonde one, they all perked their ears to listen better.

"I won't get in there."

"Get in buddy, come on! Are you afraid?"

"Tsk. Afraid of what?"

"That's what I wonder."

Shadow sighed while looking to the other side, Manic spoke again then. "Come on, no one's gonna see you."

Shadow sighed and in less than three minutes he was inside the hot spring.

"There you go, you see? Is not that bad."

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Stop it."

"Stop what?" Manic stared at him confused.

"That encouraging of yours, is freaking me out."

"Oh come on Shadow, you think I'm gay?"

"Well you have some tendencies."

Manic glared at him for a while. "What tendencies?"

"Those earrings of yours, they look ridiculous."

"Oh really?" Then he proceeded to pull Shadow's ear, Shadow yelled in pain, after all, Manic was pulling him hard even if he thought he didn't. "You want me to put some on your ears?!"

Manic proceeded to submerge Shadow in the water and in just a matter of seconds, a water wrestling match was taking place, meanwhile, the girls on the rock were watching.

"HEH HEH! This is getting good. Hey! Stop covering your eyes, you're missing everything!" She tried to pull Mina's arms to make her see, Mina just pushed back.

"NO!"

"Whatever! Miss it if you want."

"Manic, no, stop-! Manic- you- ARGH! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Shadow pushed him back and got out of the hot spring. Mina covered her eyes again. "You're like a child!"

"Shad no, don't go!"

"Stop calling me that way you little brat! I'm out of here!"

"No Shadow wait! What's wrong with you man?" He stepped out of the hotspring. "I was just playing."

"Leave me alone."

"Hey, sorry." He lowered his ears a little. "I didn't mean to hurt you if I did."

Shadow then looked back. "You're lucky you didn't touch anything." Manic chuckled.

"Yeah I guess." He put his hand on the top of his head and chuckled again, the girls at the top of the rock melted.

"I'm going to put my clothes on."

"Shadow please."

"It's not about you." Shadow took a towel and put it around his waist. "I'm tired, I'll have some sleep."

Manic sighed. "Yeah, I think I'm gonna get out as well."

"Don't you forget what I told ya to do."

"I know, I know." With this said, Shadow got out of the place. Manic stood still for a moment, then he put a hand over his forehead and sighed. He thought about some things before taking a towel and rubbing it on his head. Meanwhile the girls were still watching him.

"Oof!" One of them said. "What a boy, he sure's got fire!"

"Definitely!"

"Ugh, you seriously disgust me."

"Come on Mina, like you will never see a naked man in your life. Someday you will have to. And so will he do the same."

"I just wonder what she's gonna do then." Teased one of the girls. Mina then got angry and uncovered her eyes.

"You want me to take a look?! THEN FINE! I'm looking now! I'm lookin-" She didn't finish her sentence when she stared at the hedgehog, contemplating his full anatomy. Mina's face turned redder than flame and it took her a short time to reach the ground.

"Oh lord, Miss is gonna get us killed!!"

"Shut up Miriam and let me think straight!"

"Sorry, sorry! Is just that… I don't want to get into trouble!"

"And you honestly think I do?!"

"Girls, chill the hell out please!"

The two girls stopped arguing after the brown haired maid talked. "Perhaps we can wake her up before Miss comes in."

"Right!" Said the red haired one. "I'll bring a cold jar of water, maybe that will wake her up." She bolted out of the room while Manic and Shadow fully dressed, came into the room.

"Hey girls."

"Uh… hi, prince." Said Miriam, the yellow cat. Manic then looked at Mina passed out on a bed.

"What happened to her?"

"She passed out, I-"

"How did that happen now?" Asked Shadow.

"Well, she hit her head with a… rock… by accident."

Manic and Shadow stared at each other and then looked at her in disbelief.

"Really!"

"Let me pass by!" Then the redhead came and poured a jar of cold water over Mina, surprisingly she didn't wake up. "Oh god! She's dead!"

"No she isn't. She's just… sleeping, it seems." Manic stared at her. The maidens looked at each other and grinned, they had to give Mina another favor.

"Prince Manic, would I be a bother if you… I don't know…"

"What is it, miss?"

"If you took Miss Mina to the other room, it will be more comfortable to her."

Manic stood silent for a while while Shadow frowned at the maidens. Then Manic spoke.

"Sure, why not." He carefully took Mina on his arms and dragged her to another room not very far from there. He stopped to put her on the bed when Mina suddenly started curling.

"Oh… you're so warm." She put a hand over Manic's neck, he just stared at her with his eyes open. "Uh… thanks."

"Oh no I couldn't possibly…. Oh yes, that's a good massage."

"Aparently she knows we're still on the spa." Shadow added. Manic just shrugged.

"Oh Mr. You're so handsome…." Manic snickered as Mina spoke in her sleep, suddenly, he stopped snickering and blushed fervently. Shadow then realized why, Mina was holding on Manic's chest.

"Manic… you alright?"

"I, uh… I don't know."

Then Mina started to open her eyes slowly, she then looked at Manic suddenly, and a high-pitched scream came out of her lungs, Manic screamed in response and dropped her to the floor instinctively. Shadow dropped his eyes to the floor in shock.

"What the fu- Manic!"

"I- I didn't mean to!"

"What the hell is-"

"Owwwww…." Mina moaned. Manic crouched to help her.

"Mina! I'm so sorry, I swear! Did I hurt you?!"

"What happened? What am I doing here? Oh, god, my head…"

"Mina, are you alright?" Asked the brunette.

"I don't know, I don't remember…"

"Well- wait. What was the last thing you saw?"

"I guess… I remember when we were about to enter that-"

"AH YES! She's alright!" She snapped. Mina kept moaning about her headache.

"How hard did you hit her?" Asked Shadow.

"I… well." He regained his composure and proceeded to talk again. "Anyways! Mina, need to tell you something. Shadow thinks that you should, uh. Let's say that, your self defense-"

"It sucks ass."

"Thanks Shadow." Mina said angrily.

"Shadow, that wasn't necessary." He glared at Shadow and continued. "As I was saying, you need some training, so I'm gonna teach you how to fight."

"Yeah?"

"Aha. I'm gonna teach you to defend yourself, so, uh, why don't we go to some place where we can-"

"Right on! I'm ready!" Manic smiled at Mina's response.

"Good, now, let's get out of this place."

They all reached a garden with trees on full bloom, for Mina, it was the most beautiful sight in that moment; for Manic, it was the perfect ground for training. He stretched his arms and legs. "Now, can we start?"

"I'm ready!" She put her arms and legs in an attempted fighting stance. Shadow took a hand to his head while Manic stared at her blankly.

"What is it?"

"Your fighting stance is kind of… odd, you could be thrown to the ground easily-"

"I can handle it."

Manic sighed. "Alright, let's get on it." He reached from his pockets a metal object and threw it to Mina; she almost let it fall when catching it, while Shadow rolled his eyes in response. Mina looked it closely, and when pressing a button, a metal sheet came from it.

"What do you want me to do with this?"

"Come at me."

Mina stood silent for a moment. "What?"

"I said come at me. Try to attack me with the knife."

"I… I can't do that Manic."

"Of course you can! Now come and try to stab me with it."

"No!"

"Mina you have to attack me if you wanna learn to fight."

"But I don't want to hurt you."

"The bad thing is, Mina…" He was now talking serious, he knew exactly when not to joke. "Is that everyone can become your enemy when they want to."

"That sounds like crap." She said hastily.

"It sounds like crap, but is true, now come at me."

"I'm pretty sure you wouldn't do that."

"And how would you know?"

"Because you wouldn't be capable of hurting innocents, that's why." Mina seemed sure of what she was saying, Manic however didn't know what so say.

"Forget it, she won't do it." Shadow added, Mina turned around to face him with an enraged face.

"Shut up Shadow! You think you're so strong because you have powers and all, don't ya?! Then why don't you come and hit me the hardest you can dumbass?!" Manic opened his eyes when hearing her mention that word.

"I would if you weren't-"

"Shut up dude." Manic demanded, Shadow didn't even bother on saying anything. Manic then turned to Mina. "Alright, so let's say, I wasn't Manic… let's say I'm a-a… I don't know, A RAPIST!"

Mina perked her nose in disgust. "A rapist."

"Yes, a rapist."

Mina laughed. "You can't be a rapist, you don't have the balls to hurt a girl."

Now Manic was offended, his expression changed quickly while his face started to turn red. "You think I've got no balls huh?! Say that to the real rapists in the street who don't have any show of morals or motherfucking balls as you call them! You think that raping some innocent is having the courage to do it?! That has nothing to do with it!! What is more, is cowardice!!"

"And you think I don't know that?!"

"You would know if you came at me for once darn it!! What if one of those bastards came at you, huh?! Would you start giving an assload of why you shouldn't stab him? What would you do?!"

"At least I'm still polite!"

"HAH! Polite?! Being polite won't help you on the real world goddamn it! In case you didn't notice, this here isn't everything on Mobius! There are men dying, women raped and children going to war!! I could go on and on Mina-"

"Don't talk to me like I didn't know what's going on!"

"Apparently I have to tell you, since you don't seem to give a damn!"

Manic's eyes opened wide, not because of what he had just said, but because Mina had actually swung the knife at him. He flung back right away and touched his cheek, which was bleeding. Then, before he could say anything, Mina swung the dagger again, he evaded the attack swiftly, and Mina attacked again, failing one more time. The monotonous dance of knives kept on and on, Mina continued to attack him, and he continued to evade the attacks. Since he had lived on the street all his life, he could evade almost everything except for some types of bullets. He continued evading over and over again, as Mina continued attacking.

"WANTED ME TO ATTACK! THEN HERE YOU GO!! DO YOU LIKE ME NOW??!!"

"Mina-"

"SHUT UP!" She swung the dagger again and stopped breathing hardly. Then a warcry came from her lungs as she swung it again, however this time, Manic was prepared. He took advantage of the moment and grabbed her hand that held the dagger and pushed her to the ground, then spun the knife like he did with his drumsticks. He put the knife in his pocket again and extended a hand to Mina. Mina stepped up by herself and slapped Manic.

"You're a bastard."

"Mina, I-"

"Shut up, I don't wanna see you."

"Mina, please, I didn't mean to-"He grabbed her arm, but she flung back almost instantly.

"Leave me alone!" She started running away from him, he followed her calling her, but she refused to listen.

She continued running until they got to the city again, running past streets, people, etc. While Manic followed, wondering how she could run such long distances and so fast.

"Mina…" he panted between words. "Wait!"

"NO!"

"Mina!"

She stood running until she found a tall building where she hid herself in. She ran in and stopped. She reached a blue room, with portraits all over, but the most noticeable one was the one in the center. It was the biggest as well. In it there was a purple hedgehog woman, holding three newborn babies. From the looks of it, the yawning one was definitely Sonic, she giggled when looking at his old time friend being a lazy baby for the first time. The other one was a magenta hedgehog girl, who laid happily in the embreace of her mother. The last one was also the smallest of the group, he laid in a cradle next to the mother, his fur was green with some tan patches on his arms and tummy, he was sleeping on his little bed, dreaming about things that people don't know. Mina knew exactly who this last hedgehog was.

She then turned her face to the cradles in front of her, they were small and soft, ideal for the three siblings of the picture. Each of them was labeled with their pictures, the same hedgies on each bed.

"You found it."

Mina turned around to see Manic on the door of the entrance, he showed up his palms. "I'm sorry."

Mina gave Manic a look that could have made him run away in seconds, but there was sometjing begging him to stay. Mina finally sighed and turned her face. "Shadow's right."

"What?"

"I am weak. You showed me that I am, I shouldn't have come."

"Mina…"

"Don't try to fight me back Manic, I'm still angry at you."

"I know."

Mina didn't answer after that, she looked at Manic for a second. His face was hard to decipher, he looked somewhat sad and kind of distant. Mina knew that he was indeed regretful. "Forget about it already, is no big deal."

"Hmm." Manic turned his attention to one of the pictures of the room, while Mina looked at the big picture of the center.

"Is that your mom?"

Manic deflected his view to the picture as well. "Yeah."

"…Where is she?"

"She's dead."

Mina frowned. "Oh my god, I shouldn't have asked-"

"Is fine."

A short silence was floating between them, then Mina spoke again. "What about your brother and sister?" Mina supposed the pink hedgehog was his sister as well, Manic didn't answer at first.

"I don't want to see them."

She stared in disbelief. "Why?"

"Is a long story."

"Oh. I'm sorry. I know it's hard when you don't have your mother with you… There was one time when I was separated from my mother and I- I…" She decided it wasn't appropriate to talk more about the subject. "I better leave."

"You father is dead as well."

"What?" She asked disdainfully, she was tired after all that happened.

"Your dad is dead."

"Yeah."

"Did you knew him well?"

"Um, not really, but-"

"I never knew my mom either." She was now curious about what Manic was saying, while he stared at her expressionless. "So why should I bother?"

"But…" She sighed. "Forget it. I'm going back to the house, I gotta pack my stuff for leaving tomorrow. Will you come?"

"I'll catch later."

"Alright."

When Mina went away, Manic started to walk around the room, taking a look at everything, he opened a door close to the corner. The room he entered was like a small storage, more pictures were hanging from the walls and things were dropped on the floor. The furniture was old, and most of it were closets. In the center were hung three round-shaped objects with handprints on them. He took one of them from the wall, it read: "Manic – three months old."

He took a look at it and put his hand over the print. His hand was even bigger than the object, he slipped his fingers from it and noticed some cracks, he also noticed that he just made those cracks when holding the object. Manic's ears hid beneath his quills and his tail lowered, he hung the object back again to the wall and walked away from there as the object with a new print hung serenely there.

After all that happened, the two hedgehogs and the mongoose stood at the building almost all day long. They dined a special night food since they were leaving the day after. Later that night, Manic fincished brusing his teeth when he heard something. He started walking around the aisle and heard it come closer. Someone was singing. He opened one of the doors and saw Mina singing at the balcony, her voice was as melodic as a singing bird, she stopped singing when she heard Manic. "Oh! Manic?"

"What are you singing?"

"Is some song my mother taught me, is ancient mobian."

"Oh."

"Manic…" She walked closer to him. "I want to thank you, for all you're doing, no one, and I repeat, no one had that kind of patience with me, no one but-"

She didn't even finish the sentence when her eyes lowered. Manic saw her get sad and tried to change the subject. "Your singing… is nice."

"You think so?" She blushed slightly. "Well, my friends used to call me songoose when I was with the Freedom Fighters."

"Songoose, cool. You know, I used to play in a band when I was younger."

"That's nice, what did you play?" Her green eyes gleamed in the dark serenely, Manic hurried his answer.

"Drums."

"Cool." She smiled. "Do you sing as well?"

Manic laughed a little and took a hand to his head. "People tell me not to."

Mina laughed. "I don't think is that bad, maybe it has gotten better."

"Yeah." He shrugged. "Maybe."

"Perhaps… we should sing together one day."

"If you want."

Mina smiled widely, Manic stood looking at her for a few seconds, she looked stunning as the shade of the night gleamed on her.

"I gotta go, tomorrow we have to wake up earlier, where we're going is far away from here."

"Alright Manic." She grabbed the handle softly. "Good night."

"Good night." He said softly as she closed the door.

* * *

Now this is when you click the review button... yessss... SO DO IT. ...Please? D:


	7. Glacier Birth

Disclaimer: Well, first of all, I do not own Manic or any Sonic character who appears here, they are property of Sega, Dic and Archie respectively. The Characters Elijah Echidna and Morge-Li (Morgiana) are mine. I guess that's all then.

Author's Notes: Now this chapter is the longest thing you will ever read, I'll seriously have to do my chapters 's got also a lot of grammar and spelling errors, but as I said, english is not my mother tongue. However, beside all this, right now, this is the chapter that I'm proud the most, the battle scene was a sucess and I survived due to hating to write battle scenes. This chapter, along with the freaking ammount of action, has some other new characters, so it will be worth it, I promise.

Also, for the full undertandiment (is that a word?) of my readers, I'll start adding notes so for those who are not familiarized with archie and with my story timeline can get used to it and understand it. I will add numbers next to the phrases, names etc that will be explained at the bottom of the page. K? So with this said, let's get to the next chapter and please enjoy and review, ok? Blink surely appreciates it :3

* * *

Chapter VI: Glacier Birth

They traveled up to the northest part of the continent, to a small town that settled between the bay and the Intrincara River.

"Welcome to Fishertown."

"Seems like someone ran out of ideas." Manic said after Shadow, Mina was after them rubbing her arms as she cringed.

"God… is s-so cold in this place..."

"Yeah, we better get something before we freeze to death…" Mina grabbed Manic's arm before he ran away.

"We're not stealing anything."

Manic sighed as they walked through the town near the sea, the smell of dead fish and saline water ran inside their nostrils as they felt the cold air cutting their flesh. Also there were sounds typical from bays: Birds, people talking quickly, bells, swearing, the fish still thumping on the wooden floor, etc.

"Manic, what do you plan we do now?"

Manic turned to them, his face serious. "This is when things start getting a little farther." Manic cleaned his throat before speaking again. "We're going to the North, to the icecap zone."

"Why exactly?" Asked Shadow without changing his expression.

"There's a Chaos Emerald around the area. I'm not exactly sure where but I've made a radar that might help us find it, but first we've got to be there."

"That's- why you brang us to this f-freezing end of the world?" Mina asked shivering violently.

"Yes. So we better find a boat, and quick. I'm gonna turn into a walking ice cube if we don't."

"You guys seem to be cold!" They turned their attention to an old, coated fisherman as he jumped off his boat.

"Yes! Indeed we are!" Mina shivered. The fisherman laughed and put a hand over Manic's shoulder.

"Come in! I think I've got something that might interest ya."

Inside the old rooms of the boat, the old, bearded fisherman scrutined into a small wood closet.

"Here." He threw a red leather jacket to Shadow, a pale yellow one to Mina and a brown one to Manic. "These ones should help." He laughed. Mina bowed back and forth like a toy.

"Thank you so much sir!"

"My name young lady, is Ankler." He said touching his white moustache. "So, may I know why are you here?"

"We need to find a boat." Manic said nervously. "So in that case, I think we better start going."

"There's no need for that, young man. I could take you there if you want!"

"That would be perfect Mr. Ankler." Said Mina smiling, Manic put a hand over her shoulder.

"We don't want to be a bother, besides, where we're going is no place where fishermen go."

"You mean the icecap?" Manic stopped on his tracks. "I could take you there."

"The lands of the north are too risky, sir." Manic's face was hard as steel, showing that he didn't look very happy anymore.

"And so is for young people like you." The old man started to behave strange and to walk around in circles. "The northern lands are habited by strange wild animals and god know what else. That is definitely no place for a normal hedgehog."

Manic's teeth started to come out a little, Mina knew something bad was about to happen in that instant, and so Shadow did.

"But you're no normal hedgehog, or am I wrong…" He pulled out a small hand axe from his pockets. "…Green Demon?"

* * *

"Sonic."

"What's wrong Knux?" Sonic yelled, the sound of the airplane didn't let him talk normally. Everyone else was inside while Knuckles and Sonic were sitting on one of the wings.

"I think there is something you would like to hear." Knuckles' eyes gleamed below his eyebrows. "This strange green hedgehog… is there any possibility you're going after 'The Green Demon of the North'"

"If you say the Green Demon without the 'North" thing, then maybe." Sonic smiled playfully, Knuckles however, was cold-faced.

"You seriously don't think this strange hedgehog, Green Demon or whatever you call it, is Manic, do you?"

"…I'm not sure." Sonic stared into the sky. "But I really want this guy to be him. You know exactly why I'm doing this right?"

"Yeah." With this Sonic stared back at Knuckles.

"Say, you look worried, Knuckles old pal, what's wrong with you?"

Knuckles sighed. He, like Sonic wanted to believe they would find his friend's brother, however, he was dubious: There were millions of hedgehogs around Mobius, lots of them green. He knew some: Rob o' the Hedge, who was a freedom fighter traditionalist and Amy's cousin. Scourge, before named 'Evil Sonic', a clone of the fastest thing alive that had been exposed to Emerald Radiation and was one of the evilest and nastiest things in history. And then was Manic, the thief-prince with the 'surfer dude' accent, the crazy hair and a problem of sticky fingers. These three however would be shivering by hearing the name of the green demon: A hedgehog creature that Knuckles knew well enough by talk.

"Sonic, there are rumors about the 'Green Demon of the North', very bad rumors. Some of them, I doubt them to be truthful, but even the most fantastic of this tales are truth enough for me."

Sonic laughed. "You echidnas seem to hear lotsa stuff around Mobius."

"Indeed we do." Knuckles answered. "My father and Athair come with many stories from outside Angel Island. I was with them the time they started talking about this guy."

"What did they say?"

"Well, the first of the tales starts with his birth." Images of the tales came to their minds. "Rumors say the demon was born from the Sabina Glacier, in the north. They said the glacier started to break apart all of a sudden and this hedgehog came from it. After being born, an armada of Eggman robots intercepted it. Some people said they were after some Freedom Fighters in the area. The thing is, he destroyed the entire armada in seconds, Eggman had to run away quickly if he didn't want to get killed."

Sonic now looked concerned as well, Knuckles quickly regained his composture and cleaned his throat. "What I'm saying is, we gotta be careful in this lands of the north, we don't know who- or what is there. Of we have to play, we have to play it slowly Sonic."

"Pfft!" Knuckles glared at Sonic after making that rude noise, however, he didn't mind. "Ya worried Knuckles? Come on, we can defend ourselves, I am the fastest thing alive, no? And you're a pretty strong gu-"

"The green demon has the strength of a god, not even a hundred swatbots would be match for him-"

"You're afraid he's stronger than you?"

Knuckles remained silent, Sonic just gave his trademark grin. "Nothing's gonna happen Knux, we'll be just fine." When said this, the cockpit opened, revealing Tails on the inside. "Guys, I have good news and bad news."

"Yeah?"

"The bad news is, there's a sandstorm in the desert, a very big one."

"How long will it last?"

"It will last up to the morning of Wednesday."

"Aww man!" Sonic bawled. "Today and tomorrow full?"

"Yes, I'm sorry Sonic, but is too dangerous. This plane couldn't take it."

"Then I'll go." Sonic stepped up and prepared himself to jump.

"SONIC!!" Sonia's high voice rose from inside, as her head poped up from inside. "Are you out of your mind?! Stop that right now!!"

"I'm going to go after Manic!"

"The only thing you will do is kill yourself!! Now sit down and follow Tails' suggestions."

Sonic made a hard sigh and sat, Sonia then got back to her seat.

"Don't worry Sonic." Tails smiled. "The good news is that Galera city is up ahead and we may stay there until the storm passes. On Wednesday, we can continue the journey to the north." With this said, Tails closed the cockpit. Sonic sighed and crossed his arms together.

* * *

"I bet I'm just right." The sailor said. "Is not everyday that a green, young hedgehog comes to the north to come back to its birthplace." His axe, which aimed to the group made Manic's quills stand as he tried not to snarl, he didn't want to scare his teammates, especially after that strange sort of breakdown he had when fighting Elijah the echidna, the fisherman just continued talking.

"Do you remember when the glacier broke before you? Then you were born, to kill us all some say."

"Manic, what is he talking about?" Mina said in a concerning tone while Shadow, whose expression, which was always one of boredom and loathing, turned to one of slight surprise.

"Nothing." He said as he turned back. "Come on, lets' go. We don't have time to lose here."

"Yeah, give your back to me and to everyone, like you did years ago. After all, the prince as he says, doesn't have time for confronting to an old man…. Part of his people."

That was it. Manic, in an attack of anger grabbed the man's arm and put his strength on his arm, which made the fisherman drop the axe. The fisherman didn't oppose resistance, he knew that struggling was useless at such strength.

"Heh." The old man muffled. "You sure are strong."

"You bet I am." Manic glared. "Just who are you? A spy from Robotnik?"

"I can assure you I'm not." He smiled. "I'm just a noble fisherman that wants to help his majesty."

"Yeah right!" Manic applied more strength to his hands, making the fisherman make a small sound of pain, Mina then interrupted.

"Manic, I think he's telling the truth."

"Are you sure?"

"I…" Mina's face lowered, Manic stared at her in disdain.

"I asked, are you sure?"

Mina didn't answer, the Shadow walked to the fisherman and held his wrist with his thumb.

"He's not lying, his heart rate doesn't rise."

Manic stood silent for a while and let go of the man. He regained his composure quickly, then Manic spoke. "What do you want?"

"I want to be of use, my young prince. I'm so damn tired of this tyranny, so tired to work only to be robbed when the taxes rise up. I can't assure a future for my girls nor my grandchildren. I'm sick of being useless. So I ask you to let me get you and your friends to the north, but in exchange, with all permission…" He kneeled on the floor and hid his head on the ground like an Islamic follower. "… I just beg that you remember me as your noble servant."

Shadow made a rude noise from his mouth while Manic seemed troubled. "Yeah… sure, I will."

The old man stepped up from the ground and smiled. "So I guess we can move on, young one."

In a few minutes the old boat started to run its engine and to travel far away to the north. In matter of hours, the space was being invaded by a strange cold mist. They put their coats on and kept waiting until they could see some land, in that moment, Ankler came with three old hot cups.

"You better drink it while is hot." Manic took a sip from the cup and his face contortioned instantanely and spit out of board.

"I didn't think it was that bad." Ankler laughed. Mina took a look to the black, slimy and bubbly brewage in the cup as her nose rose.

"What's in this thing?"

"Don't remember… I think coffee and… grouper liver oil, turtle, some… fish guts I guess…" They tried not to puke as Ankler made a list of what he added to the drink. "Anyways, those ingredients are a very good source of protein, vitamins, calcium, and will keep you awake as you go through the cold winds of the north, so is better to be prepared. I'll go back to the cockpit, call me if you need something." With this said he left leaving them behind, with Shadow and Mina to talk with Manic.

"Manic, we've gotta talk." Mina started, manic sipped the black liquid again, making a noise.

"What about?"

"What the hell happened in there?" Shadow asked with his unchanging expression.

"I guess he went insane." Manic srhrugged as he turned his back to the board, Shadow pulled him to turn to him.

"I wasn't talking about that. I meant what was he talking about, this 'green demon' thing."

"I don't know what he was talkin'-"

"You're DAMN RIGHT you do." He shook Manic from his shoulder. "And you're gonna tell me right now what's going on before I find out for myself."

Manic sighed and proceeded to explain himself. "Green Demon is a nickname I put on myself to avoid Swatbots of catchin' me. I also invented the whole scheme, it was all for safety."

Shadow still wasn't convinced of this, Mina either, however they chose to leave him alone., for that night, they all slept with the wait of a new morning. However, when waking up, they didn't see daylight but a slightly dark and cloudy sky, they were close.

The boat made a soft thud when hitting earth. Ankler jumped from the boat to secure it to the icy bay, after him, the group of three jumped from the boat.

"Ank, I beg you to stay here while we go find the emerald, could ya do that?"

"Of course prince." Ankler smiled. "Anything for ya."

"Thanks." With this said, the three of them proceeded to walk.

The northern Ice Cap Zone was one of the coldest places of Mobius, and indeed it was. Manic could feel the ice forming around his ears and nose, however, they had to continue.

"Shadow, you didn't bring your bike by instance, did ya?"

"Yeah, like I could put it on a boat." Said Shadow sarcastically.

"You don't have to say it that way, sheesh."

They continued walking for hours, and the more they walked, the colder it would get. Sometimes they would see what looked like some dried-up bushes and some trees, that made themselves more occasional when entering a forest of pines. After walking thorugh it Manic stopped on his tracks and tapped the radar several times while mumbling some curses, Shadow stopped next to him.

"What is it?"

"Is this stupid thing, is failing."

"Why the hell is it doing that?"

"Perhaps is the cold, the temperature is freezing its internal parts and-" Then, the device made a strange sound and shut down. "Great. It crashed."

"Why that's perfect." Shadow put a disgusted face, like he always did the whole time. "Why didn't you think of that before getting in this godforsaken place?"

"Don't yell at me, ok?" Manic stated angrily. "Besides, I can't think of everything, I'm too busy to think of everything."

"Busy having hot spring baths? Yeah I suppose that takes a lot of effort, doesn't it Manic?"

"Shut up before I break you in half."

"I dare you."

Manic lifted Shadow of the ground, but Shadow didn't hesitate, instead he kept his cold defiance. "You're getting me tired, Shad. I'm serious. Now, shut up, or I swear I won't be easy on you."

"Tsk. Oh, please spare me, I'm just a poor bastard who doesn't know anything , it actually reminds me of someone…"

Manic threw Shadow to a tree and Mina screamed, then he proceeded to grab Shadow again over his head. "I'll say it again Shad. I'm serious dude, so shut up now."

"Manic, stop it." Mina said. "I know he's a jerk, but leave him now, we gotta find that emerald, remember?"

"Since when do you care?" Shadow said hastily. "All you've done is crying and moaning all trip long."

"Shut up Shadow. After all, I'm trying to help you, so show some gratefulness for once." Said Mina in an angry tone, Shadow just ignored her. "And what you have done this trip long Shadow? Besides, of course, blame us for everything and throwing hissyfits?

"I slayed the legionist."

"WE slayed the legionist, you and me, in case you don't remember." Manic corrected. "And we've been fine since then. So you don't have anything to blame me for."

"Except for the radar crashing."

"It was the cold that made it crash, so is not my fault either. That happens very often and there's nothing to worry about. We'll find the emerald sooner or later if we keep doing as I say."

"We won't find the emerald if we do as you say besides if I didn't appear to help you, Mina would have gotten eaten. And perhaps you would have cried your heart out after that, I can figure."

Manic pushed him to a tree and grabbed his throat. The hot blood trailed through his veins. "You don't know me. You sure don't." Manic snarled a little. Mina intervened again:

"Manic, don't. Please." Manic just ignored her, Mina got angry.

"Fine, go ahead! Keep discussing; you're doing a great job! I'll go somewhere else to DO SOMETHING USEFUL." Then she walked away from the patch of woods, Manic and Shadow however, didn't move. They stared at each other for a while and didn't say anything. Shadow then snapped out.

"I'll keep watching you. I'll let you do whatever you want, you do something wrong, it will be your problem. From now on, I don't give a damn about your decisions. OK?"

"How is that you can still breathe normally?" Manic wondered, he had been holding Shadow for a while now. Shadow just stared deeper.

"You don't know me."

With this said, he let go of Shadow and cracked his knuckles. "Come on, we've gotta catch up with Mina."

"Before she gets in more trouble than she's worth?" He said as he walked before Manic.

"Listen, if you want me to get along with- Mina?" He noticed Mina's body stand still into what looked like a white mass of fur. Shadow walked closer and took a look while Mina's face stood horrified. In front of them laid a white not anthropomorphic animal of some sort, dead. Fleas floated around along with a rancid smell.

"Sweet- aw god." Shadow covered his nose, then Mina did the same as she cringed back making soft shrieking sounds. Manic approached the dead animal and crouched, he didn't cover his nose like Shadow and Mina did, after living most of his life on the street, the smell of almost everything nasty didn't do any effect to him. He grabbed some of the flesh and turned it around and saw what he thought: Worms. He knew what it meant.

"It's been dead for days. I don't know for how many or what was the cause of it, but I'm sure this fella has been thrown here a long time ago."

"What is it?"

"Is our radar." Both Mina and Shadow were puzzled. "I don't know much, but I've seen this animals group around emeralds and stuff. You see, radiation attracts them, no matter what kind, it attracts them like fleas to the flesh." He pointed to the dead animal. "That includes chaos radiation."

"Manic, this animal is dead, it won't go anywhere."

"I never said that it would lead us to the emerald." Manic looked up to a near hill, in which thousands of the same goat-like animals climbed to the top. Mina gasped slowly. "They will."

"So all we have to do is follow that herd."

"Yeah. They should know where the emerald is, just don't drink that water there." He pointed to the river next to the corpse. "I don't think any of us wants to take a dump before the right time."

"You sure are useful when you want to."

"Easy Shad, easy."

"Guys, did you hear that?" Mina snapped out suddenly. Manic looked around but nothing.

"I don't see anything."

"But… I'm sure I heard something moving throught the trees."

"It must be some forest animal, now lets get goin'. My hide is freezing cold downright quick." Manic and Shadow walked in direction to the mountain, Mina followed them still unsure and with the presence of that someone who followed them.

They followed the herd up the grayish, ice hill. They walked for what seemed hours, and that's when the energy started to give in and the hunger started to attack, along with the cutting cold that helped no bit.

Finally they reached the hill's top, which was followed by another chain of hills. The group of three continued following the herd until they stopped to see a small house made out of pine wood, on which a small while and orange flag hung on top. Manic smiled.

"I should have known, come on." They walked among the herd, which groped themselves in fron of the door. Manic pushd them aside and knocked, but there was no response. He tried to knock again, but nothing. Finally he got out of his pockets a small metal piece and started doing what he was best at.

"What are you doing?"

"Just applying a little trick." Then a click came out of the lock. "Right on, dude." He opened the door and went inside along with Mina and Shadow following him. The place was completely dark inside, there were no candles, nothing. Manic called.

"Aunt Morg! I'm here! Are you home!" There was no answer, Manic however called again. "Yo aunt, is me, Manic. You remember?"

"Who's this aunt you're talking about?"

"She's not really my aunt." He answered to Mina. "Everyone just calls her that way, she helped me when I was injured from a battle, she's a freedom fighter."

"And she lives up here?" Shadow asked looking around.

"Looks like it." Manic then reached a lonely door. "Here must be her office or something." To his surprise it was open, he felt that some strange feeling came up his spine, then he turned around to see the illuminated face of an orange echidna with a handkerchief tied over her head come out of the darkness.

"Hey!" He smiled. "Aunt Morgie, is me!"

"Hello sweetie…" Her voice sounded choked, Manic frowned.

"What's wrong, why are you so-" A flame appeared behind her cheek, almost burning her. Then, from the shadows another figure was illuminated by the firelight. Manic's quills stood in an aggressive patern and his teeth came barely into sight. It was the figure of a purple cat, with bright yellow eyes, she wore what seemed like a dark purple suit with a golden collar and furred sleeves, also she was carrying a messenger bag that seemed to move magically. After her, another figure appeared, this one was a hedgehog just like him, but instead he was white, with only two quills on the back of his head and five smaller quills on his forehead, his eyes were an amber color and he was wearing strange boots and gloves with strange, light blue patterns on them. Shadow frowned after them.

"What are they doing here?" He thought.

"Who are you?" Manic asked still in defiance. The cat was the first one to speak.

"We come in a message from the Dark Legion. You're ordered to surrender, if you don't… well, let's say she won't be lucky to survive." The flames of her hand got bigger, the echidna woman just emited a little gasp and Manic's fangs bared themselves visible enough.

"Leave her." He received no answer, Manic's patience was cutting short. "I said leave her!"

"Manic wait up." Shadow said. "This is not normal. They are not this way." He whispered.

"What do you mean?" Manic frowned. "You mean you know them?"

"They are good people. But something seems to control them, I'm not sure what it is, but I know the legionists did this to them to go after you, because they have enough power to take you with them, dead or alive."

"Did you finish your conversation?" The cat girl asked again. "Or do I have to make you decide quicker?"

"Don't you touch her, or I swear I'll-"

"You won't do anything." The white hedgehog snapped. "You don't touch her, Manic. I don't want to be the one to kill you."

"But I'll sure be battling you." Manic snapped back. Shadow started pulling something out of his pockets, made out of cold, black metal.

"You have no idea who you're dealing with-" She didn't have time to finish her sentence when Shadow pulled his gun and shot the wall. The fire died and the cat was in shock for a moment, Manic decided to go after the white hedgehog and leaped to him, pushing him to the ground. Aunt Morgie ran away from the house to keep herself safe, but the cat followed her, knowing that she was the only way to catch the hedgehog thief. Throwing fireballs at her they came outside where she cornered her against the edge of the hill. There Manic appeared holding the white hedgehog, and threw him at her with a force that sent them flying off the hill, however they evaded the fall thanks to an unknown power that lifted them up the ground and made them touch the ground safely. Manic and Shadow ran down the hill to face them.

"I don't get this." Shadow said frowning. "They are not this way, something is controlling them."

"I see no mind control device." Manic answered. "Just who the hell are they?"

"The cat's name is Blaze, and as you can see she has full control of the fire."

"I could take her down in a second."

"Don't be so sure about that. She's bat enough, but Silver is a though one, a very though one."

"What is his power?"

"Let's say it could beat you fast enough, even with your superstrenght."

"Yeah but what-" Blaze threw a fireball, which both evaded and the fight started. Manic went for Silver as Shadow went for Blaze. Shadow had problems attacking Blaze directly, and using Chaos Spears wasn't helping to slow her down. She kept throwing fireballs at him ad the attacks got fiercer and fiercer.

"Damn it!" He thought. "She's getting stronger, if I don't do something quick, I'll be gone. However, if I use the Chaos Blast she'll die. And I don't have the emeralds near me to use Chaos Control.1 I knew I should have taken Manic's emerald!"

He almost got burnt by a fire attack. In the meantime Manic wasn't doing any better. Silver was too fast for him and kept evading his attacks, but when Silver was distracter was when he could finally strike a punch that sent him flying to a large ice mass.

"Off the wall dude! Yeah!" He didn't have time to celebrate when the pieces of the ice mass lifted off the ground surrounded by a blue aura, and charged to Manic, who reacted just in time to dodge most of them, except for the one that hit his left leg. Silver lifted himself off the ground floating.

"Surprised?" He said softly while he grinned evilly. Manic frowned.

"Telekinesis?" He thought. Silver's grin grew wider.

"Now you will have to come with us, dead or alive." When he put emphasis on the word dead Manic growled aggressively and pulled the giant ice thorn out of his leg and pointed it at Silver.

"Dead shall be then." The strength of his voice, in an almost bestial fashion gave the impression that he wasn't definitely happy anymore, he was angry and ready to kill.

He threw the ice lance at silver, who destroyed it with his powers, Manic ran to him swiftly and punched him on the face, the punched again and again, it was when Silver extended his arm and a mass of snow hit Manic in the face, covering his eyes, which gave the chance that Silver needed to escape from his hands and attack again. He was NOT letting him go away and ruin his mission.

Silver then started to throw everything he could with his telekinetical powers, rocks, trees, everything. Manic broke them and dodged them and kept trying to hit him at the same time, meanwhile Mina and Aunt Morgie watched them from above, Mina frowned as her eyes followed Manic fighting silver. "I can't stand it anymore. I'll go help them!"

"Use your speed Mina, it will help you." Aunt Morgie said, Mina frowned at her.

"How do you know my na-"

"There's no time, Manic needs you sweetheart."

"But my speed is not the same anymore! How I'm supposed to-"

"You will have to. Now go!" Still unsure, Mina drifted down the hill to help her friends. It was when Blaze, enraged saw her and stopped attacking Shadow and made her the new target.

"Mina!" Shadow screamed, but it was too late, Blaze unleashed a burning fire against her, and Mina dodged it quickly and started running, after her the fireballs would fall, one by one, but she would just keep running faster, faster…

That's when she came to Blaze and punched her in the gut, she definitely felt stronger this time, this time, Shadow would not bash her, he would not even DARE to.

Manic continued fighting Silver as he threw stuff to him, and then, when he had the chance, when he could punch him, he aimed his fist to his cheek, Silver immediately fell to the ground, but before Manic could do something else, the white hedgehog lifted him from the ground as he was surrounded by a blue aura.

Silver stepped up and touched his cheek. "You made it this time, you've got me pissed off." He closed his hand onto a fist and Manic felt as his organs inside him were being crushed, letting out a scream he felt as weak as when he traveled with his brother and sister. Sonic himself had and ability of his own, he was the fastest thing alive. Sonia although not fast, she could spin herself so quick she would become as strong as a hurricane on earth, but Manic, even having the power of making earthquakes, he could not do it without his medallion, in any case he had nothing.

He was woken up from his trance when Silver twisted his lungs, a chocked gasp came out of his mouth and he remembered his sickness as well. The last days he has taken his medicine, but the twisting of his organs would aggravate his condition a tenfold. But right now, the only thing that mattered is that he needed air, but he would not get it if his lungs were being used like clay.

Mina kept fighting Blaze and it wasn't until she turned to Shadow that she saw Manic, his eyes getting out of its orbits, it was a horrendous sight. She knew what she had to do, and quick.

"She's all yours Shad!" And before Shadow could hesitate she ran to where Manic and Silver were fighting and propelled a terrible to Silver's face that made both she and Silver lose balance and he let go of Manic, who fell on the ground breathing heavily. Mina then tried to help him, and that's when she looked up, to see Blaze burning in rage. She screamed and threw a fireball at Mina, who dodged it. When the fire reached the snow, Mina looked horrified, was Manic carbonized? Tears came to her face, hot tears, hot as the rage she felt towards Blaze and Silver and she expressed it charging towards Blaze, and falling on her, aiming punches to her face, bruising it badly. Silver defended Blaze throwing Mina far away to a rock where she fell unconscious, leaving Shadow alone.

Manic tried to lift himself from the ground, he felt a huge hand over his shoulder. "Don't let them see you." Said a strange voice. He was behind some dried up bushes and then faced the figure.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Big." Big was a large-sized, purple and white cat with yellow eyes and huge ears, Manic frowned at this sight. "I helped you with my fishing rod, see?" He pulled a yellow and black fishing rod. "I grabbed you with my hook and brang you here. Here, is a lot more safer!" He said gallantly.

"Why, thanks, but I have to-"

"You've gotta help me!!" He grabbed Manic's shoulders and shook him. "You've got to! You've got to!"

"WAIT!" Manic pushed himself from Big. "What do you want?"

"My friend Froggy was captured!"

"Just who the hell is Froggy?"

"He's my friend! He's inside that mean kitty's bag! You've got to help me!"

"OK, OK!" I'll help you!" Manic sighed. "Just do as I say, alright dude?"

"Yes!" He saluted.

"Listen, I have a plan…"

Meanwhile Shadow faced both Blaze and Silver at the same time, and it didn't matter what he tried, he faced one then the other would attack his back and vice versa, it was just when he heard Manic when he felt somewhat relieved.

"Yo, you want me! Come and get me!"

"Don't be to cocky Manic Hedgehog." Blaze yelled. "We won't go so easy on you now."

"Bitchin'" Manic grinned. "Just what I wanted to hear."

The attacks to him started again, the flying objects and the flames passed just by his side when he dodged them while getting closer. It was then when Silver held him captive again, that Manic stopped.

"You can't win Manic." Silver stated. "Your friends can't be of use right now."

"Really? What about the big, angry cat behind you?"

"What are you-"

"Leave Froggy alone!!!" Big grabbed Silver from one of his quills and started spinning him around. Blaze tried to help his friend and tried throwing a fire at the big purple cat, but stopped when she heard a clicking sound and turned her sight to Shadow pulling a gun against her head.

Big finally stopped spinning silver around like a ragdoll and threw him away, Manic, who was set free by Big ran after the flying Silver and jumped on him. Silver, horrified tried to defend himself. "Oh no, you won't." Manic grabbed his wrists and pinned them to the ground and bared his white shining fangs, Silver said nothing, he was too scared of that demonic figure that held him on the ground, the cold blue eyes that almost his completely behind his eyebrows watched him carefully as his hot breath hit his face. To Manic it was just the enemy, only the enemy and nothing else. It was so easy to make him stop, so easy. After all he did, it was just the time to pay.

"What are you waiting for?"

He reacted. What was he thinking? Killing him? What the hell? It was then when he noticed something on Silver's neck and everything became clear. "Shadow! Is a chip! A chip on their necks is controlling them!" With this, Manic lifted Silver and grabbed the device with his fingers and ripped it off Silver's neck, Shadow did just the same and both Silver and Blaze came back into reality.

"Wha- what happened?" Blaze turned to the black hedgehog. "Shadow?"

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think so… Owww, my head." She moaned.

"Are you alright dude?"

"I… I dunno." Silver answered. "Who are- wait, you're… Manic, right?"

"Yeah."

"We've been searching for you!"

"Whoa man! If you start attacking again you better-"

"Again? What happened?"

"A controlling device." Shadow interrupted, holding the chip. "The Dark Legion did this, they used you as weapons."

"Dang it!" Blaze said angrily. "We shouldn't have let them catch us!"

"That's not important now-" Manic then went pale when seeing Mina lying in front of a rock, unconscious. He ran to her and tried to wake her up desesperately. "Mina! Mina! Wake up! Yo, Mina! Please!" There was no answer. "Mina please! WAKE UP!"

"Poor missy…" Big whispered. In that moment, Aunt Morgie walked down the hill and looked at Mina.

"Poor girl, I just hope that hit didn't damage her head." Manic shook her more and started calling for her again, the he started feeling a great pain on his body, a very big pain. He started running with Aunt Morgie calling after him, but unable to help him while she helped Mina. Shadow felt curiosity to know why he had ran away from there in such a hurry and followed him to the back of a large mass of ice, that's were he saw something he would have not wished to see. He saw as Manic starting spitting large amounts of blood from his mouth, the color abandoned his face as the red liquid did the same, when it was over, Manic shivered a little and turned around with the most frightened face he had ever put since he met Shadow.

"Manic…" Shadow frowned as Manic pushed back.

"Shadow, I… ARGH!" He grabbed his stomach tightly as Shadow crouched.

"What's wrong here? Start talking." Manic knew it was useless to lie, so he proceeded to speak.

"I'm sick. And there's no much time left for me."

"You're gonna die?"

Manic coughed. "I think so."

"How much time you've got left?"

"I don't know." He started spitting blood again, Shadow stepped up quickly.

"I'll call the others."

"No, don't." He pulled Shadow's pants. "I don't want Mina to know about this."

"You would be lying to her… again."

"I don't want her to know, I don't wanna worry her, just… just call Aunt Morgie here, she will know what to do."

Shadow didn't say anything for a moment. "You know what I said about letting you do whatever you wanted, so that will be your problem then, is your choice. I just hope you know what you're doing." Even if it didn't seem like it, Shadow was concerned, Manic could feel it. "I'll call her up."

Manic waited for a few seconds, crouching and curled up until Aunt Morgie appeared. "Manic, my sweetheart…" She crouched to face him. "Is happening again?" Manic nodded weakly. "Alright, is fine, I'm here now. How are you feeling?"

"Not so good." He made the sign of being about to puke when the echidna woman put her hand over his back.

"No no no. Calm down Manic, calm down, that won't do you any good and you know it."

"I… I want to talk with you Aunt Morgie… alone."

"Alright, Shadow, could you please leave us alone for a moment? Go give a hand to Big and Mina, please." Shadow the proceeded to walk away. "What is it?"

"Aunt Morg… do you know how much will I last?"

"I'm still not sure Manic, I'm still not sure. You know my powers have limits."

"I know, I know."

"However, let me tell you this Manic, the time is coming. Something evil is rising, I can feel it on my bones. And you're part of this whole scheme. You know what I meant when I told you that you had a big future waiting for you, a future full of victories."

"I remember, yeah." Manic stepped up slowly. "I remember it well."

They walked away from the ice mass and to their friends. Big was holding what seemed like a green frog, turning side to side. "Froggy, I'm so glad you're fine! I'll never leave you again buddy!" Shadow just rolled his eyes. Mina was also fully awake now; Manic ran to her and hugged her tightly. "Mina, you're safe!"

"Why… yeah…" Mina blushed.

"Mina, you're the bomb!" Manic looked at her and smiled widely. "Seriously Mina! You were totally cool when fighting Silver and Blaze. I never seen that in you Mina."

"You were amazing indeed Mina." Aunt Morgie interrupted.

"How is that you know my name without knowing me?"

"I knew you would come, you, Manic, Shadow, Big, even Silver and Blaze. I knew you would come from the future to help me."

"The future?" Manic asked surprised, Blaze nodded.

"Yes, we came from the future to help Morgiana with the Dark Legion events. It would somehow affect the future, so we had to go to the past to change the events right now, at this time. But we got captured and sent to kill her and you three."

"We're really sorry." Blaze said sincerely.

"Is cool Blaze." Manic grinned.

"Anyways, as I was saying, Mina, you have more power than you can imagine. But the biggest power is what you can do for others, that power is bigger than anything else. That is Mina, what makes you strong as you only are, and you need to be strong for who need you when the right time comes."

"And when?"

"You will see."

"Thanks aunt, you were of great help."

"Thanks to you Manic, to everyone, and please come visit me in a while, it gets kind of lonely here." She smiled. Manic put his arms around her.

"Take care aunt."

"You too, and please don't steal."

Manic laughed. "I'll try."

"Thanks for all Aunt Morgie." Mina hugged her as well.

"Don't forget what I told you."

"I won't."

"Thank you so much auntie Morgie!!" Big ran to her and hugged her, and she laughed.

"Take much care of Froggy." Froggy croaked in response. Morgiana casted her sight over Shadow and smiled. "So you will say goodbye to me or… you're too grown up for that?"

Shadow sighed and walked to her, he stopped and extended his hand. "Thanks for everything." No one said anything for a while, until Morgiana hugged Shadow in surprise and Manic chuckled, Shadow's face was blank.

"Be sensible to your surroundings Shadow, you don't know when you will get to miss something, or someone."

Shadow patted her back and pushed himself apart. "Take care."

"We will stay here to help her." Silver said. "We'll see you around guys."

"I hope so, after all that happened, it was nice to meet you." Manic laughed, and so they did.

"I guess so."

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Morgiana pulled out of her coat a white shining jewel. "I found this emerald covered in snow months ago. I used it to bring the Shriekgoats here and have something to eat, but as you can see…" She pointed to the herd. "I don't need it anymore."

They took the emerald, said a last goodbye and Shadow took them to the bay with a Chaos Control. Ankler received them warmly.

"We have more guests eh?" He laughed. "Let's see, you are?"

"My name is Big! And this is Froggy!"

"Well, is nice to meet you two, hehe! Get in, this old ship has space for you!" He looked at the other group. "You found the emerald?"

"Yeah, Shadow has it."

"Okay, then I guess we can go! All aboard!"

They entered the ship, when inside, Manic asked Shadow a question. "Shadow, when we were fighting… did you say something to me?"

"Something like what?"

"Something like: 'What are you waiting for?'"

"I never said such thing."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. Maybe it was your imagination."

"I- I don't know…" Manic had the strange feeling that something was wrong. If Shadow didn't say that, then, who did? What was happening to him? He asked himself that question over and over again as the ship abandoned the icy bay and went in direction back to Fishertown.

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1). According to Archie, Shadow can use Chaos Blast when removing his inhibitor rings.

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Now this is when you click the review button... yessss... SO DO IT. ...Please? D:


	8. Interlude

Author's Notes: 'Ello there, my good buddies! It has been a long time, I know, but I finally managed to add something here. So, well, here's when the story reaches its climax people, after this interlude, which is something of an introduction to the second half of this fic, things will get HOT! Seriously. After this, things will start to be explained and the real danger will pursue Manic, Mina and Shadow, or maybe just not them? HU HU HUUUUU...

Well, either way, here goes the interlude. Nothing really interesting, just some introduction. But read it anyways, it's a clue to what will happen next. Anyways enjoy! And please review!

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Interlude

A few days passed after the battle on the tundra with the newcomers of the future, the trio decided to go back to the South Island, now with the Chaos Emerald, it was easier to trip from place to place, especially since Shadow had plenty of knowledge of the use of the Chaos Control. When arriving there, they decided they would keep themselves low and rest for a little bit.

Meanwhile, Sonic and his friends searched for Manic during the days passed, they were still searching for him, nothing would stop them.

Or so they thought.

"I hate Hedgehogs!!!"

Eggman yelled wide as his robots tried to repair the computer from the last attack. Manic had sabotaged the computer with a strange device Eggman never dreamed the mobians would have; all the files, information and weaponry concepts were lost, not only that, but he also sabotaged one of the only roboticizers yet existing.

"I HATE THEM!! First that blue rat and now this stray green piece of sh- Ahem." He tried to keep his cool, he looked back to see Dingo and Sleet cringing in fear, he raised an eyebrow.

"What's wrong with you two?"

"N-nothing sir!" Sleet answered still shaking, he thought about how he would die, either roboticized or with his head bitten off by the raging tyrant.

"Yeah, nothing!" Dingo also added.

"Hmm, alright." He started thinking: "Now that I have my defenses off, I bet the Freedom Fighters will start an attack, especially that blue pest. I must act quickly and think of something quick-" Then it came, he knew what to do. An evil smirk came across his face, creepy enough to leave the two canines pale as ghosts.

"Listen! What is the thing every Freedom Fighter is determined to protect?"

"Uh, well-" Sleet started talking slowly. "I think –other people?"

"You got it well. Other people, thousands of fleabags and parasitic dogs waiting to be 'saved' by them… heh." He grinned even wider. "They should be the perfect bait to lure them in, and I hope they are not scared of sharks. Sleet, Dingo, you know what to do!"

In the afternoon, the troops arrived to Mobotropolis and started the slaughter. Some people were tortured, others just killed and others were taken to somewhere else, maybe a worse place. But that day, it was hell.

Sonic and the others heard the news when they were still searching up in the north, and had to leave immediately to take care of the situation. Other Freedom Fighters arrived to the scene, but their efforts weren't enough to defeat the army leaded by Dingo and Sleet.

"I guess you will have to wait bro." Sonic thought as they left the northern landscape, however, he didn't know that his brother was in the same place he was supposed to go to!

"Are you alright?" Knuckles said as he sat next to sonic on the plane's tail.

"Yeah sure, I'm just thinking." A while passed after the Tornado turned back to Robotropolis, and Sonic remained unusually silent on that period. "I don't think we'll be able to find at this rate."

"What do you mean?"

"We've been delayed twice, if we remain like this, we may lose his tracks."

"Sonic, have you thought about what we may find?" Knuckles asked. "I mean, there are lots of green hedgehogs in Mobius, but only one Manic. Besides, I thought Manic was-"

"Dead. Yeah, me too."

"…So?"

"I still need to see if he's there. It was my fault that he left, I should have stopped him, I should have listened-"

"Yeah, we all should have, I know."

Sonic laughed a little. "It must be really strange for you that I'm telling you this. I've never been good for these things." Indeed he felt strange, Sonic was never really open for feelings, he was the "too cool" type of person. Something he wouldn't do was telling how he really felt, he always had to look cool.

"Nah, don't worry, I'm willing to help you find him, after all, he's your brother."

"Mm-hmm."

Knuckles sighed. "I just hope you're right about who we find." He thought.

"We'll find him, I promise, I bet he's all right."

"Uuuughhhhhh…" Manic moaned as he regained consciousness slowly, his back and head were killing him, his ass killed him too, why did everything hurt?

He opened his eyes and stared at his feet, they were locked in some kind of strange cuffs, as well as his arms, which he couldn't break with all his strength, he then realized they were of inhibiting nature, they blocked powers.

He looked around the room in search for clues. Just where was him the other day? The last thing he could remember was as they left the icy landscape in the north with Shadow and- where were they?

He felt the smell of urine, feces and rotting flesh in the room, his stomach revolted and his feet then hurt too. He knew something was wrong, why couldn't he remember it?

That was when he stared at the wall and everything became clear. "Oh shit." He said as the symbol of the round man with the moustache and the sinister smile watched over him as if it was alive. "SHIT!"

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PUSH THE BUTTON. DOITDOITDOITDOIIIIIIITTTTT.....!!!


	9. Returning

Author's Notes: Hello everyone! Is time for a new chapter once again! This one was a big pain, I must say, and I'm not 100% really proud of it, but is enough for me to post it. Just in case you don't know, I'll be rewriting the first chapters, and I'll eliminating some stuff, being the most relevant that I'll be taking off Big and Amy from the fic, I'm sorry, but they are kind of useless, and I don't want it to look like Dragonball or Naruto, where the filler characters are always in a veeeeeeeery faraway place while the hero fights with the monster for three episodes just after a staring contest and a few boohoo flashbacks.

Sorry, but that's the truth. :/

I also wanted to reply to a few unsigned reviews I recieved, so, here you go!

To Elly: Thanks for your lovely reply, I highly appreciate that you commented not one time, but twice! And OH BOYYYY I am dying to see what you're gonna do with that movie-thing you're preparing, and I would love to see it. You can see where to contact me at the end of these notes and in my account. By the way, be on the watch of the changing chapters, since I said I would be rewriting them, the story could change dramatically.

To Elly (2nd review): XD Well, I hope this satisfies! But I am not the only one to write a Manic fanfic here! Since Manic's my favorite character (and

the awesomeer of all yo), I am always looking forward to good fanfics. The best are: "The Truth About Manic" and "The Truth Revealed" by The Mouse of Anon, being the last one a comic in which I am participating as the sketching artist, inker and colorist (you can see a link to the page at the end of these notes as I said earlier); I also like Sakura Courage Solo's fanfics, and so on, right now I don't remember, but I have some in my faves. Yes, Manic's attitude has changed, but I think it's pretty much because of him being older and more mature and because of the events he went through, which we'll see as the story goes on and on.

To Carcaj 457: I don' think it will be necessary to bring a horde of thieves to kill me now, besides, I, like Chuck Norris, can't be killed, because I'm awesome like that and I have super awesome electric powers, which I could use to kill thieves and fry chicken. XDDD Well, anyways, thanks for your review, I highly appreciate that you liked it, even though I'm not very sure of my narrating methods, but thanks!

Well, to end with this, as I said, here's where you can contact me:

My Yahoo! E-mail:

My deviantart: .

"The Truth Revealed" Comic: .

Manic the board: .

That's all for now! Enjoy the chapter! And please don't forget to reviewwwwwww!!! :3 Lots of love!

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Chapter VII: Returning

"Have you enjoyed your rest, young prince?" Sleet's voice echoed inside the room as he entered it with Dingo after him, both smirking evilly.

"You bastard." Manic snarled. "Get me out of here son of a-!"

"You better watch your language Hedgehog, Lord Robotnik's really angry with you now, you don't want him to have your head."

"I will have his and yours two as well if you don't leave me alone."

"In the situation you're in I doubt you can do anything at all. Weren't you the master of thievery? Why don't you free yourself, maybe you can kick our asses and we could be sorry."

The canids laughed, making Manic's blood boil with rage. "Dingo! Help me carry him to Lord Robotnik, he has an 'appointment' to attend to."

When Sleet put his arms under Manic's armpits to carry him along with Dingo, he seemed to forget something. Manic was taught under Farrel's tutelage how to defend himself when he was held bondage, and he knew it well, that was when Sleet yelled aloud, starling Dingo, it took them a few seconds to realize the hedgehog had sunk his teeth in Sleet's arm.

"AH! DAMNIT!" Sleet hit Manic's head several times until he let go of the wolf. "Son of a bitch! You-argh! Dingo! Get him to the main room!"

"Uh… okay…" Dingo grabbed Manic in a way the hedgehog wouldn't be able to bite him, he had indeed hurt sleet, as a slight trace of blood was running out of his mouth, he spat as he was being dragged to the main room.

"Lord Robotnik, the hedgehog's here."

"Bring him in."

The automatic doors opened and the canines brought the hedgehog and sat him on a chair in the center. To the side was Mina, in the same situation as him, but Shadow was nowhere to be seen.

"Good day hedgehog, are you doing alright?" Eggman asked as he turned around, Manic just glared at him with no response at all.

"I understand why you're upset." The human caressed his moustache. "But I had to take some... measures, you see." Manic kept glaring at him, Mina just stared at him with a worried glance. Eggman kept talking as he walked around. "I must say that, when you were younger, in your little band with Sonic, you were nothing more than an accessory –but congratulations! After your little trick in my fortress the last few days, you have proven to be a pain in the ass."

"Well, you've been a pain in Mobius' ass for a while."

"You think you're so smart, isn't it little brat? You think you're all 'invincible' because of some 'magic trick'? Well, too bad your little girlfriend is not that 'invincible'…"

Sleet took a gun and pointed it to Mina's head, she made a strange noise between a yelp and a grunt, making Man. "Leave her!"

"What's wrong hedgehog? You don't want your little girlie to be hurt?" Mocked Eggman, while Sleet let his hands through Mina's hair while still pointing the gun at her, Manic moved violently on his chair, trying to break free, cursing and screaming.

"Leave her, motherfucker! Leave her, damn it!! I'LL KICK YOUR-" Then he felt something cold behind his head, and heard a clicking sound, turning his head, to his horror, was a familiar face, and his stomach churned.

"Oh, what a pleasant surprise, and a heartwarming reunion." Said Eggman fervently. "I am glad that you're joining us today, master Farrel." The roboticized Farrel bowed silently and walked to his now long-term master. "Farrel didn't have the time to say good-bye the other day, so now he is greeting you this afternoon, but this time-" the robot, once a mobian walked next to Manic and held the gun against his head. "-you won't be able to go away."

The dogs laughed along with their Lord, Manic smiled cynically. "So what, you're going to kill me? You know better than anyone that that won't keep the peeps from comin' to get ya."

"What peeps? Peeps like Shadow?"

Manic was surprised. "How do you know about Shadow?"

"Let's say we were friends for a while… but he tends to be kind of… troublesome, you know? He's different. You should ask him about it, after all, you both are very alike." He gave a mischievous grin. "Oh wait, I forgot I will kill you, too bad. Farrel, do your job."

Farrel held his gun against he hedgehog's head, Eggman grinned when he saw Manic's troubled face upon the situation he was in, he was going to be killed my his own tutor, his adoptive father and master, and there was no way to stop it from happening, but something was keeping Farrel still for a moment.

"What are you waiting for? Kill him already!" Yelled Eggman. Farrel's hand shook fervently and his face which had dull, empty eyes seemed to change at some point, what was in his eyes? A sparkle perhaps? Manic wondered for a while silently but still frightened.

"Kill hi already stupid-!"

"WATCH OUT!" Dingo yelled as he saw the roboticized mobian turn around and point his gun at them, they threw themselves to the floor as four shots penetrated the window on the room.

Farrel stood still for a moment, and then turned around to face Manic. To the hedgehog's surprise, what he received from his old mentor was a hand ruffling his hair. "It has been a long time, my boy."

"Farrel?"

"Who else?" He laughed through a mechanical voice. "You have grown up so tall, come on, let me help you." He freed Manic picking the lock twice as quick as Manic normally did, and Manic proceeded to help Mina, and as he was doing so, a deafening alarm sounded, and the swatbots appeared right trough the door.

"You think you would get away with this that easily?" Eggman showed up a controller making them assume that was how the alarm had activated itself. "I think you better get out of here now, I will for sure." He entered a escape pod along with the two subordinates and fled.

"Damn!" Farrel muffled as Manic finished freeing Mina. "Manic, get the girl out of here, I'll take care of this."

"What? Are you nuts?! They will kill you!"

"They won't kill one of their own, they are not programmed to do so." Farrel said behind the electronic voice. "Besides, I won't let them catch me, not this time, now go! I'll meet you at the creek!"

Manic hesitantly carried Mina and ran away with her, it took him a few minutes to find out how to get out of the base, but when he came out, he found out that he came from one hell, to find another, the city burning with fire and with the hate of war.

"Manic!" The green hedgehog turned around to see Shadow, who was calling for him.

"Where the hell were you?!" Manic asked angrily.

"That doesn't matter now, the whole city's about to break apart!"

"Then what are we waiting for, let's get out of here!"

"But what about the citizens?" Mina asked ad Manic put her on the ground. "If we don't help them, they will be-"An explosive sound was heard, making the three of them to flinch, then a blue airplane passed above them flying at high speed.

"What the-" Manic didn't finish his sentence when a 6-meter-tall robot broke from a building, the robot recognized them in their database and started to attack.

"Watch out!" Shadow charged his gun and started to shoot the robot, but the bullets caused no effect on it, the robot tried to crush shadow with it's tentacle-like arms, but he managed to avoid them, he activated his shoes and started spinning around, confusing the machine, and making it go numb for a while.

"Let's go while it's processing!" Shadow yelled.

"But the people-!"

"Forget about that!" Manic yelled, surprising Mina, who stared at him with disbelief. "We can't save them now, we have to go!"

"Fuck!" Shadow yelled, a tentacle grabbed Manic all of a sudden and pulled him back very fast as Mina yelled for him. The robot held Manic above itself, as if he were a doll and started crushing him.

"Nngh!" He tried braking free, until he noticed that terrible feeling weakening him, the syndrome. Blood rushed to his mouth and his vision blurred, and then a shrieking sound accompanied by an explosion was heard, and the robot let go of him.

Manic ran away from it as fast as he could, and his behind a piece of rubble. Shadow motioned Mina to run somewhere safe and ran to where Manic was, seeing him as he puked blood.

"Are you alright?" He kneeled beside him.

"I'm fine, go with Mina, I'll catch up."

Shadow proceeded to do as Manic said, and went with Mina, as the blue airplane fled once again and a blue figure fell from it.

"Time to party!"

Manic looked at the blue figure and couldn't believe his eyes. After so much trouble hiding from the public spotlight, life had played unfair on him when he saw that his own brother was at least a few meters away from him.

His brother, Sonic the Hedgehog, the Blue Blur, the Fastest Thing Alive, and Manic the Hedgehog, the Green Demon, were very close from each other, and one of them didn't know how close.

Sonic proceeded to charge at the robot with his spin attack, but its armor was too thick to be penetrated, and gave Sonic a hard time. After a while, more people joined, one of them was a red echidna, who Manic recognized as Knuckles, a two-tailed fox, and to his surprise and his sister, who was there as well. Knuckles had managed to make fixtures on the armor of the robot, but it still wasn't enough, Manic knew he maybe could be able to break the armor or at least, damage it enough so Sonic could break through the robot's inner machinery, but that would mean to break the silence between them, and things would get out of control real soon.

He ran, unnoticed by them, to Mina and Shadow who were waiting for him, so Shadow could take them away from there with a Chaos Control. "I'm here."

"What were you doing?" Asked Mina.

"I was busy. Shadow, let's get out of here, before we are roasted alive or something."

"What about your brother?" Manic looked back when he was asked this, and then faced them again.

"He'll be fine, now let's go."

"I don't think-" Mina didn't finish his sentence when the green hedgehog interrupted her.

"We'll be fine damn it! Let's just leave!"

"But he's your brother! Don't you want to help him?!" Mina said desperate, Manic again turned back.

"I-I-"

"Manic…" Mina whispered while she exchanged an expression of disbelief, Manic thought for a moment before answering.

"Let's go."

As Shadow reached for the emerald, Manic was silent, but moment after moment, he found himself running towards the robot, with his friends screaming after him. It took him a short time to put on his goggles and equally short time it took him to jump on the robot and make it fall to the ground.

Everyone else was silent. The robot then stepped up and came away from the dust, aiming to attack the group, and he jumped back on him, avoiding the robot to hit Sonic and his friends. Meanwhile, Sonic was still and speechless, who was this guy? The robot grabbed him and Sonic immediately charged against the robot's arm and freed Manic, who charged again to attack.

Mina and Shadow stood far away from the fight as it took place, Shadow then talked:

"Wait here, I'll go help Manic." He started running towards the core of the battle.

"What? You can't just leave me here! I want to help!"

Shadow stopped and looked at Mina. "If you want to help, then stay here." He then took off. Mina seething grabbed a rock and tried to throw it at Shadow, but he was gone.

"Bastard." She said, very un-lady-like, and after seconds she thought. "Whatever!" And ran to the place.

Meanwhile , everyone stood out to help Sonic and Manic. Knuckles punched, Sonia did her trademark supersonic spin, while Tails embarked on the Tornado to figure out how to dismantle the robot. While he made an analysis in the Tornado's computer he called sonic through a clock he designed which could help them both communicate.

"Sonic! The robot's weakness is inside it, its outside is hard to break, but his inside is completely weak!"

"Great, but how will I get there?" Sonic asked quickly.

Tails typed in his computer, and came with a solution. "It seems its head's joints are weaker than the joints of his arms, legs and such, maybe you can find a way to-"

"You want me to rip its head off?!"

"It's the only way! Unless you find how to do that, I will have to launch a missile, and it's too risky, and it could kill you."

"Well the other option sounds better, now that you say it."

"What is Tails saying?!" Knuckles asked.

"He will have to decapitate it!"

"What?!"

"Sounds fine to me." Manic said to himself. He leaped on the robot and crawled to his head, but something broke his concentration, the pain was kicking in once again. He felt his arms weaken, and fell to the ground, hitting his head. He yelped in pain between the apin on his head and the pain inside his stomach, and couldn't react towards the robot about to hit him; but Sonic could, and took him away from the robot's punch.

"Are you ok?"

"Don't touch me!" He pulled Sonic apart. "You better concentrate yourself on your own ass and not mine."

"Well, sorry for worrying!" Sonic looked at the Robot and though about something.

"Listen, can you walk?"

"Yeah." Manic stepped up quickly. "What are you thinking of?"

"Maybe I can manage to defeat it if we combine our strength."

"How so?"

"You have great strength right? Maybe we can get someone to distract the guy and then we can prepare an attack to penetrate his armor and defeat the guy.

"I thought the weak point was his head."

"Well it seems we don't have other choice, he's moving too much."

"Sonic!" Sonia yelled from afar.

"Well, we don't have more time, so let's do it!" He extended his hand to Manic. The green hedgehog stood still and then looked at who was his brother, and for the first time in three years, he grabbed his brother's hand in a mutual greet.

Sonia's supersonic spin failed, and sent her to a wall. Knuckles quickly ran after her and helped her stand up.

"Are you alright?" Sonia quickly retired Knuckles hand from her.

"I'm ok."

"Sonia!" She turned around to face her brother, along with the green hedgehog. "You have to distract him! Me and Ma- I mean, him are going to distract him!"

"You want me to do what?!"

"It's the only way, er- just do it!" Sonia didn't have time to answer him, for he was already gone.

She let out an exasperated sigh. "Come on Knuckles! We'll have to break through that armor."

"How?"

"I don't know. I guess we'll have to help Sonic in some way."

"We'll help as well!" A purple-haired mongoose yelled, Mina Mongoose to be exact.

"Who are-"

"It doesn't matter now!" Mina yelled, taking out a small gun.

"I told you to stay!" Shadow then joined, taking out a rifle and shooting at the robot, which quickly punched his gun away. Shadow then proceeded to shoot Chaos Spears.

"Yeah Shadow, we all think stuff."

"Ok, this is what we're gonna do. I want you to throw me with all the strength you can to that thing." Sonic started. "I will prepare my attack from there." They were in top of a tall building, observing everything from there.

"Will you be ok?"

Sonic paused for a few seconds, staring at the guy and smiled. "Man, this is piece o' cake, I'm pretty sure I can handle it!"

Manic smiled. "If you say so."

Manic carried Sonic and held him almost like if he was being prepared to throw a javelin. He aimed to the robot's torso and after Knuckles had damaged the armor enough, he threw him at full force. Sonic extended his arms to cut through the wind, and when he got close enough, he spun at full speed, cutting first through steel, then through cables and internal machinery, and then landing on the floor, incorporating himself in the process.

The robot then fell, provoking a very violent explosion that luckily, didn't hurt any of the freedom fighters in the place. When the smoke dissipated after a few seconds they were cheering each other, except for Sonic, who was looking for the strange individual everywhere, but was nowhere to be found.

Manic had taken advantage of the situation to find Shadow and Mina and get out of the place with a Chaos Control. When he finally found them he was exhausted and felt like puking, Mina showed concern.

"Manic, are you ok?"

"I'm alright, let's hurry up. Shadow, do- ACK!" He felt the pain in his stomach intensify and burn.

"Manic-"

"Do it Shadow! Now!" Manic demanded. Shadow didn't think twice, he grabbed the Chaos Emerald from out of his pocket, but couldn't concentrate with all the noise and movement.

"Wait! Wait a second, I wanna talk with you!"

"Shit!" Manic said angrily, it was Sonic, who had finally found him. "Shadow, hurry up!"

"Wait a second damn it!" Shadow concentrated his full energy into the Chaos Emerald and was prepared to declare the mystical jinx.

"Chaos Control!"

"Wait!" Sonic used his supersonic speed and pushed Manic, who accidentally pushed Shadow and on. But before Manic, Sonic or any of them could react; the gleam of light coming from the jewel enclosed them and transported them right away.

"Sonic!" Sonia yelled, looking for her brother. "Sonic! This is not funny! Stop fooling around and get your hide here!" No answer. Tails got out of his plane right away.

"No signs of Sonic?"

"No." Sonia said, now worrying harder.

"…What now?" Tails asked once again.

Sonia looked around, to confirm her suspicions. "I don't know." She said, as the smoke dove into the sky."

* * *

PUSH THE BUTTON. DOITDOITDOITDOIIIIIIITTTTT.....!!!


	10. The Two Sides of the Coin

Author's Notes: Well, after dealing with my procastinating nature, finally this chapter is done. Really guys, I'm sorry, but between school and brainstorming and being so freaking lazy, it is really hard for me to bust my butt and do something decent. But I finally managed to do it, right? And I hope that you like this chapter, because is really long. REAAAALLYYYYY LOOONG. But I enjoyed writing it and I hope that this chapter, whih is actually plot (gasp!) will explain some things.

On the other hand, here I be, trying to replay to the awful load of reviews I got, which is not a bad thing, oh nonono. But I hope that I can answer everyone's questions, now let's seee:

First, to answer everyone that said "continue the story!" believe me when I say that I'll finish this one. I am willing to make of this a piece to enjoy fully.

Natzume: Thanks hun! I'm glad you think this is the best story, and makes me blush, cause I believe that I still have a lot to learn. That's why I exhort you to never give up trying to write your own. The stories can never be boring if you put your best on them, accept critiques and if you think better of yourself, so yeah, keep trying! (And don't worry about your english, I'm not a native english speaker either). Also, concerning the plot, I understand that Mina gets on your nerves, XD I wasn't very good at portraying characters when I started this, but luckily I can fix that by the rewriting process, so yeah. About Manic's sickness, well, you will have to keep reading because I don't want to spoil anything. XD

randomsonicfan: Well, I guess that was the intention, seeing it as a continuation of SU, and thanks for your support! I hope to see more of you!

Nicky the Hedgehog: Well... I don't really like Mina and Ash's pairing, maybe is just because of fandom, maybe not but mehhhhh... But yeah, having Manic for oneself is not really a bad idea, HURRR... Also, interesting idea you brought up, we'll have to wait and see what happens!

Elly: I don't know who told you that your reviews tire me! XD I know is not true. But yeah, I would absolutely LOVE to see what you came up with, I activated my e-mail in my account so everyone can send me whatever they need, so there you go. Also, if you have a deviantartaccound, you can always tell me, as I have one, so maybe we can contact each other. Concerning Silver... errr... you would probably kill me, but I don't think he's gonna appear in the story along with some other characters, I had to take this measure, since there are too much characters in this story. I hope you don't mind, cause I know you have been doing your best, however, I may add Silver further on in other stories I may come up with, so I hope is enough.

Anyways, to end with this, I may have to fix the chapter before this one, seeing as they don't really make sense between each other. This is the reason why I'm rewriting this whole thing anyways.

So to conclude with this, I hope you enjoy the chapter! Don't forget to review! Also, check the Archiesonic Wikia to inform yourself further if you don't understand the terminology in here.

* * *

Chapter VIII: The Two Sides of the Coin

In the dark night, a darker shadow rapidly swifted through the trees of the forest. This shadow, which revealed itself under the timid moonlight as a swarm of moths eventually reached a cave and went through it and stopped in front of a small warehouse.

"Halt." Said an electronic voice from within. "Identify yourself and your motives."

The swarm unnaturally shifted for a moment and fused itself together until it took the humanoid form of a Mobian teal-colored echidna. "Elijah of the house of Dimitri, I'm here to have a meeting with the Kommissar(1)."

The doors opened automatically and Elijah came through them to suddenly find himself in a dark narrow room with a tall ceiling. Before him rested a thick iron door and a screen. "Please approach the screen on the right for a retinal recognition exam." He did as he was told and put his right eye next to the screen, which made a beeping sound and the doors opened. "You are clear to go, please proceed through the door."

He walked through a hall until he reached an elevator and got on it, which took him sereval meters underground. The doors opened before him, revealing a hall decorated with green banners with the symbol of a planet with rings. He passed through hooded soldiers and echidnas with several implants and went through some other corridors and finally reached a hall with a dome-shaped celing. A big banner hund on a wall where tall, golden doors rested, along with two guards. "The Kommissar is waiting for you inside." Said one of them opening the doors. "Hurry up." He pushed him inside and closed the door before him, leaving the young echidna feeling uneasy.

"Elijah." A femenine voice snapped him back into reality. He turned his gaze to face an echidna woman resing on a golden throne. She was on her thirties and her hair was a hot pinkish red, exceptuating a cybernetic treadlock that hung from her head. Her wavy bangs slightly covered her eyes, an icy blue so cold that would send shivers down the spine of the bravest Mobian. She wore a black shirt and pants with matching boots, along with a wip that rested on her hip.

She had many names, but the people most commonly knew her as Lien-Da, former grandmaster of the Dark Legion and current Kommissar.

"My fairest lady-" Elijah kneeled in fron of her. "I am pleased to stand here in your prescense as your humble servant..."

"Let me remind you, Elijah, that you describing yourself as a member of the house of Dimitri is a pathetic attempt to _become_ one of us." She said as if his prescence both bored and annoyed her. "Remember that you're nothing more than what you said, a servant." Elijah nodded ashamed. "Now speak. Did you find the hedgehog?"

"Well..." He started, afraid of how Lien-Da would react to his words. "I had a difficulty when I came down to hunt him-"

"He _lives_?"

"Yes."

She suddenly stepped up from the throne and walked next to him, Elijah staring at her with the eyes of a scared puppy. She showed that she didn't really care when she kicked him full force on the nose. He covered his now blood-soaked nose while bellowing in pain. "You witless _bastard_!" She yelled. "Didn't I tell you to bring him? Didn't I tell you to bring his _corpse_ to me?"

"I tried! But he wasn't alone!"

"What the hell do you mean?"

"He-" Elijah put his hand on the ground to support his weight. "There were a mongoose girl and a black hedgehog with him."

"Black hedgehog?"

"Yes. A black and crimson hedgehog."

He hoped that these words would ease her rage, but this proved wrong as she kicked hi on the top of his head with her heel. "Do you know what that means stupid? _Do you?_"

"N- no."

"That black hedgehog works for GUN!" She kicked him repeatidly in blind rage, ingnoring his screams. "He is a godsdamned agent working for the humans!" She then stopped and slightly moved away from him as he moaned. "We cannot execute our plansif we have the enemy_ and_ the humans on our backs..." Elijah then mumbled something. "What?"

"I- I have s- s- something else..."

"What _what_ would that be?" Lien-Da snapped.

"A-after I encountered him and the other two, I spied upon them for a while." He coughed. "It seems he met up with his brother Sonic."

Lien-Da's expression changed and an evil grin crept in her lips. "Did he?"

"They are currently in Angel Island."

Lien-Da remained silent for a while and smiled. "Good job Elijah, finally you did something, at least, useful in some way. "She kneeled upon him, planted a kiss on two fingers and pressed them over his cheek. "Guards!"

Two hooded soldiers appeared. "Yes Kommissar?"

"Take this young man to the infirmary. And while you're at it call the others." She cleaned her boots on the carpet. "There are some matters that need to be taken care of."

Meanwhile at Angel Island, the red guardian sat at the feet of the Master Emerald meditating. That day was calm and breezy, and the sound of nature echoes inside his ears. He could even swear they were calling him.

"_Knucklesss..." _

_That's weird_, he thought. He tried to ignore it, though, assuming it was part of the meditation.

_"...Knuckles, Knuckles, Knuckles..."  
_

Now he was annoyed, but still chose to ignore it until he heard something that actually interested him:_ "He lives, he lives, the Legion is rising, nothing can stop him..." _He tried to break the trance, finding out that he couldn't.

All of a sudden, he woke up back in the emerald shrine, panting and obviously agitated. Just what the _hell_ was _that_?

"I can see you heard them too."

Knuckles jumped, prepared to attack until he gazed upon a purple echidna with wild bangs. He recognized him inmediately: "Thunderhawk!" He hugged his relative. "It has been a long time!"

"Indeed it has. Anyways..." He changed his expression to a more serious one. "There is something that I need to discuss with you."

"What is it?" He asked as both sat down. Thunderhawk didn't say anything for a moment.

"I 'm afraid you're not going to like it."

"You suspect we excecute a plan in _three weeks_? With what purpose?" An old echidna, with a cape and an "H" in his attire asked.

"I believe this would be the best time." She stated to the other echidnas which sat along with her in a circular table. "I've everything planned."

"Exactly how?"

"Days ago, I sent Elijah to hunt the hedgehog prince down. He failed to do so, but he brought up some interesting information: He's in Angel Island, along with Sonic the Hedgehog." Everybody murmured between each other in surprise. "But also -thank you- but also he's being followed by Shadow the Hedgehog, an agent for GUN."

"Are you sure about this Lien-Da?" Gae-Na, an orange-haired echidna with a cybertronic eye asked.

"Absolutely." She said euphorically. "Do you know what this means? All our enemies in one place! It is the perfect time.

"We must get the consent from Robotnik."

"I'll get the consent. He will have no choice as they are his enemies as well."

"I can't let you do that."

Everybody looked at the farthest corner of the table, where in a soft cushion a crystal orb rested, a crystal orb which contained a cybertronically enhanced echidna head.

"Why not,_ Dimitri_?" She said annoyed as he remained calm.

"Leading an attack could result in a massive loss in our side, we can't share more blood for a triviality, especially one coming from you."

This last statement angered Lien-Da, but she kept her cool. "I-" She cleared her throat. "This plan is designed to benefit us with less loses as possible. Don't you see? With this plan, we could take care of the guardians for once and for all! We can take care of him!" She looked at him with a look of concern. "Don't you see what it could do for _you_? You could regain your vitality! Your power! I am asking for your help, that's the only way I can help _you_."

Dimitri looked into her face for a second. _Lying. _He had managed to figure it out since it was one of Lien-Da's greatest abilities, and he was one of the few to know so. However, he felt the neccesity to change the way the echidna people lived and knew that the chance was unique. He finally closed his eyes and sighed. "Proceed."

"The Legion is planning something." Thunderhawk finally said to Knuckles.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Recently Athair appeared to me and told me this, he said however that he still couldn't place what exactly the legion is planning."

"I still don't see why this worries you as it does." Knuckles mentioned as a matter of fact. "No offense, but, I mean, that the Legion's plotting something is _always _relevant, but I still don't see how this time it's _different._"

"Well..." Thunderhawk sighed, afraid of what he would say. "It's different because it does not only concern us, but it also concernes the Royal Hedgehog children as well." Knuckles frowned, now interested. "Especially the youngest."

"What, Manic? Related to the Legion? How on Mobius-"

"Knuckles, have you felt some sort of unusual chaos energy lately?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"That chaos energy is emanating from that hedgehog. Having felt this chaos aura, I knew it was different from ours. It happened that he's emanating _negative_ chaos energy." He made a small pause. "Knuckles, the only echidna capable of this kind of energy is no other than Dr. Finitevus. A member of the Dark Legion. I thought you would have noticed as you encountered him years ago."

Knuckles said nothing and Thunderhawk contunued: Not only that, but it seems the legion is sending an assassin after him."

"An assassin?"

"Yes, a young echidna named Elijah. He was enhanced by the Legion and has chaos-based shapeshifting powers. We first heard of him when he was hired by them a year ago, according to some files gathered by the Royal Secret Service(2). We confirmed this when we were called days ago by the Council regarding an encounter between the Hedgehog prince and Elijah, wintessed by some people of a nearby village. Also, that black hedgehog's with him; he's a GUN agent, isn't he?"

"Yes."

"Well then, if humans are interested about this boy, then is more relevant that we suspect about him."

"I- I still don't believe this. Manic is a nice guy, he would never ally with the Legion."

"Maybe, maybe not, but that doesn't tell us something, now does it?"

Knuckles stared at the floor for a moment. "So... what do I have to do?"

"Keep an eye on him, see if he behaves out of the ordinary, his reactions, his words, etcetera, etcetera. Also check on the GUN agent, he may have some information he would probably be _more than pleased _to share with us." He passed his hand through his dreadlocks. "Be careful though, we don't want any unwanted attention coming from them and their friends."

"Did you consult this with the other guardians?"

"Yes, we're all part of this plan. It was their suggestion that you did the spying labor, since you're closer to the Royal Hedgehogs. They also recommended that you be careful with the boy and to subdue him if he turns aressive.

"Was that last suggestion everyone's idea, or somebody's idea in particular?"

"It was Spectre's(3)."

"Oh."

Thunderhawk then stepped up and aproached the giant emerald. "I'll be comming from time to time to check on your progress and to lend you a hand. The others will also keep an eye on you. "

"Ok."

Good luck Knuckles, may Aurora watch upon you at all times."

"Same to you."

With That Thunderhawk vanished into a flash of light as he touched the emerald, leaving the confused Knuckles there, troubled, with those words floating in his mind.

* * *

1) Commisioner of the Dark Legion. Second highest rank after the Grandmaster.

2) The Royal Secret Service of the Acorn Kingdom.

3) The oldest living guardian. He's known for his agressiveness towards the Dark Legion. Also, he's one of my personal favorites from the echidnas.

* * *

So yeah, now, you know what to do...do I have to tell you? I'll give you a clue: It rhymes with "review", so DO IT.


	11. Flight Lessons

A/N: 'Ello boys and girls! Here it is! And... err... I don't have much to say about this one. Except that nothing much happens and that is kinda long. You guys will like it tho', why? You will seee... Also that, after this one I'll start working on rewritting two or three chapters so the hiatus might be kinda long. I'm sorry guys, but for the story to make sense, I must do it.

But ok, to answer the newest reviews!

just a random guy: As I said to others, I indend on finishing this baby up (Wow, that sounded wrong), so don't worry about me not finishing it! :3

StormTR: I'm glad you like it! It really means a lot.

Well, that was kinda short. It must have been to many of the last reviews comming from signed reviewers. But oh well, on with the story. Hope you like, and please review!

* * *

Chapter X: Flight Test

Manic fell back on his back before the toilet, a trail of blood and vomit running from the edge of his mouth as he heavily panted.

"...Damnation." He scoffed between his ragged breathing, he sat with his back against the bathroom wall and rubbed his eyebrows. "This is not good, this thing is starting to hit at me back again, even with my medication and I can't fight it back." He thought for a second and wondered what would happen next; _what now?_ He thought. Imagine what would his brother and sister say about this. "Goddamn it!" He punched the ground in a sudden bolt of anger, carelessly creaking a floor tile. He suddenly stepped up and examined the bathroom floor as he passed his right hand through his bangs with an expression of worriness on his face. "_Shit_." He looked around instinctively and perked his ears up to confirm that nobody was listening to him. He sighed and looked at the contents in the tiolet remaining pensative. "I'm running out of time." Finally, he proceeded to brush his teeth and get prepared for breakfast.

He walked down the stairs as he put on a dark brown t-shirt that he borrowed from one of the many closets in the house, surprisingly, nobody was at the table having breakfast then he suddenly heard a sound coming from the kitchen and stepped inside. There, he found an interesting scene: Several machines were doing chores, one was washing the dishes and others were cleaning everything around. He tilted his head a little bit and smiled at the curios scene before proceeding to grab a granola bar from the fridge. He walked to the nearest window as he chewed on his morning snack and noticed something as he glanced, a plane?

He left from Tails's house and walked to the plain hangar and the garage, which were not very far away. On the landing strip he saw Tails apparently talking to himself and making some gestures, he listened closely:

"You're doing great! Now steer at 11:00, ok?" Manic gestured at Tails to pay him attention, who only glanced back and nodded. "Great job, hey, Manic's here. Oh, you want to greet him? Just be careful with the trees as you land." Tails took his headphones off and shaked hands with Manic. "Hey Manic, how did you sleep?"

"Pretty well, thanks. Say, who were you talking to?"

"Oh, that was Mina."

Manic's eyes opened wide. "She was in that plane? I didn't know she could fly."

"Yeah, she still need a lil' polishing, but she has talent." Tails gestured to the plane as he walked back. "I think it would be better if you stepped aside." Manic did so as the plane finally touched ground, a liitle abruptly perhaps, but with no problems whatsoever. It slowly stopped when it entered the hangar and so did the engine, the cockpit slowly opened and Mina came out, dressed in flying gear and wearing a pair of goggles. "Great job Mina, a little forced in the end, put otherwise you're getting better."

"Thank you Tails." She kneeled and kissed Tails' cheek and then looked at Manic, who just stood there, pretty much attracted by how cute Mina looked in the flying gear. "Manny!" She bellowed as she hugged him. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm good, t- thanks." He looked at her and smiled, both said nothing for a second.

"Oh! Would you give me a second? I'll get on my normal clothes, I'll be right back here in a few minutes." She quickly ran to the house, leaving Tails and Manic alone.

"So... where are the others?"

"I think Sonic's running around, Knuckles usually meditates at this time, Sonia and Shadow... I dunno. Shadow just left 'to walk around' early in the morning, a typical thing of his, y' know."

"Yeah." Manic started looking around. "Well, this is really impressive."

"Thanks... Um, you wanna take a quick look?"

"Can I?" Manic asked and Tails nodded. "Gee, thanks!"

Tails opened the door of the garage by putting his finger on a nearby panel. Both walked in to see all sorts of machinery everywhere, as if in some sort of factory, Manic gave a low whistle.

"You like?"

"Yeah... man, are those extreme gears?" Manic pointed to a wall, where four boards hung.

"They are."

"God... they are fantastic."

"You wanna take a closer look?" Manic nodded and so Tails pushed a nearby button. The part of the wall where they hung actually unattached itself from the wall by a large mechanical arm, which moved the extreme gears where Manic could see them.

Manic walked forward and took one of the gears on his hands, examining it closely. "These are good, really good. You have talent kid."

"Thanks, I've been working with them for a few years now. Oh, hey Knuckles!"

Manic turned around to see Knuckles at the door and he didn't look happy, as if he had been told something worrysome.

"What's up?" Tails asked as Knuckles came across the garage. Manic hanged the table back at the machine.

"I'm fine." The echidna answered blankly, staring strangely at Manic, who just raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure?" The hedgehog asked.

Knuckles gave him a forced smile. "I'm _fine_. Thanks."

In that same moment, Mina appeared, panting loudly. "I'm sorry, I had some trouble finding my stuff. You wanna go take a walk with me Manic?"

"Sure."

"OK, let's go... come on!"

Manic followed Mina slowly, but not before giving Knuckles a frown. What was happening to him now? Oh well.

Meanwhile, Sonia walked through the woods as she mumbled:

"Sonic, for Aurora's sake, don't make me follow you up all this way..." She finally reached a plain and walked across until she saw a blue igre standing next to a cliff and ran to reach her brother. "Gosh Sonic," She panted. "You make following you so hard."

"I'm sorry." Sonic said in a rather monotonous tone. "This is a beautiful view, isn't it.

"Brother," She looked to the very bottom of the cliff and quickly turned her gaze to him, trying to push away the feelings of uneasyness as she stood to close to the edge. "We need to talk."

"What about?"

"Manic. He's... kind of... uncommunicative."

"It has been just a day since he's been here. If you're hoping for him to actually open himself to us as if nothing happened, then I'm so sorry to say that you're hoping for too much."

"So what? We're gonna remain as if nothing happened?"

"I never said that sis." Sonic stared at her with both his eyebrows raised.

"Then what did you exactly mean?"

"I'm just saying that what you're hoping for may not happen, at least, not for now." He sighed and sat on the ground, Sonia did so as well. "Do you remember how he used to be before?"

"What?"

"Well, as far as I remember, Manic never, and I say, _never _spoke about his past before the Underground. He would give some small details, but never a full story. Is the same here, he likes his privacy, and won't really want to put it on the table in fear of something bad happening to him."

"Oh come on!" Sonia said exhasperated. "What could possibly happen?"

"I don't know." Sonic finally said. Sonia sighed and curled herself up.

"I'm so sad." She spoke softly. "If I had handled the situation with mom better then nothing would have happened."

"Remember is my fault too, he was confused and afraid and I should have been more comprehensive."

"We all were confused and afraid. We were kids."

Sonic and Sonia then sat silently, trying to vanish the feeling of sorrow away.

"I love this place." Mina said spinning around with her arms spread. "I love it, I love it!"

Manic smiled. "Yeah, is pretty nice, not my kind of thing tho'."

"No? Then what is your kind of thing?"

"I dunno." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm more of a city guy."

"I thought Sonic been in Knothole pretty much his whole life."

"Err, no, not really. But still, Sonic, Sonia and I were not together our first years."

"What do you mean?"

"Is kinda hard to explain, but I think it was after Robotnik became dictator, the three of us were separated and didn't meet until we were sixteen. Farrel raised me on the streets of the city."

"Farrel...oh, the roboticized man at Eggman's base?"

"Yeah."

"Oh Manic... I'm so sorry, I- I was the reason for you to miss that you met with him, _twice_! I owe you so much..."

Manic snorted. "Is no big deal."

"No, I mean it." She took his hand and looked at him. "I really owe you one, I promise I'll give it back to you."

"Err, you don't really have to-"

"Is too late! I've made up my mind." She stared at him with a wide smile on her face and he huffed.

"Okay cool, if you insist."

"I knew you couldn't resist." She said thriumphantly. "Let's sit here for a while." She let herself rest her head o the grass so her gaze would be upon the blue sky. Manic sat next to her and said nothing for a moment as his gaze did not lock on the sky, but on Mina's frame. His eyes carefully scrutined her figure, and he noticed how thin she was, how small her waist seemed to him and her hips delicately drawn in a beautiful guitar-like shape. Her breasts weren't very big, but he didn't care, they were still so enchanting, and so were her legs, which were obviously tonified because of her linking to run just like his brother. He didn't take an order to look at every detail of her, he just did, as if it were some wild instinct that took over him, however he had to cut his instinct short, as his face stared on her and she gave him a rather sensual tone that told him that he had been busted doing something bad. "Looking for something?"

He quickly retired his gaze to the right, blushing heavily. Mina laughed and poked him playfully.

"Goddamn you Mina." He said grumpily as she kept laughing a little bit harder, he stratched the back of his ear in embarrassent, an obvious sign he always gave that he was horribly embarrassed. He looked at her again and saw her trying to repress the laughs and couldn't help but laugh too, Mina followed him shortly as she patted him on the back once.

"Is okay Manic!" She said playfully. "I know you haven't seen much girls in your life and stuff..."

He gave her a derisive snort. "Oh really? I've been with more chicks in a _year _than you have been with guys in your whole life."

"Yeah whatever." She said, her laugh vanishing suddenly. "Is kinda true though."

"Huh?"

"The only time I've been with a guy was with your brother(1)." She turned so her back would be facing Manic. "If you can call that 'being with someone', that is."

"Mina..." Manic tried to confort her, but she kept going.

"But you know what? Is alright, because it was my fault." She turned around again to face the clouds. "If I hadn't been so childish nothing would have happened. Sonic was with Sally! And I was so selfish to think that I could convince him out of it so I could get him to be with me."

"You weren't selfish, you were just confused. And if it helps, Sonic's like that with everybody, so is no big deal."

"Does that apply to you?"

"To _me_?" Manic asked.

"I mean... to this whole problem between you and Sonic." Manic looked away while Mina talked: "Sonia told me." He said nothing but grabbed both his legs and sunk his head in the gap between his arms and legs, Mina inmediately felt guilty. "Manic, I-"

"I'm fine, I'm fine..." He said waving his hand. "But... I don't know." He sighed. "The only thing I know is that Sonic made a mistake."

"What mistake?"

"He shouldn't have let something like you go away."

"Something?" Mina was puzzled. "I'm afraid that the words you're looking for are 'a girl like me'."

"No, not a girl." He smiled. "A woman."

Mina remained silent as she gazed into Manic's blue eyes and a smile carefuly crept in her face as well. An idea then came into her head: "You wanna see Angel Island from above?"

"What?"

"Come on, I'll show you how I fly." She said, pulling him up.

"But-"

"Come on!"

Somewhere else, Shadow was looking at the horizon from a distant tree, thinking of the recent events that had ocurred these past weeks. He knew something was comming, and it was his duty to remain alert at the same time he remained neutral and silent about all that would come. He started to feel rather bored though, sitting in a tree was atarting to become more of a habit than anything else.

"Oh Rouge." He thought. "If you could see this right now, you would probably be laughing at me." He reminded himself of a bat woman laughing at him and rubbed his head in embarrassment.

All of a sudden, a strange sound invaded the atmosphere, making Shadow's thoughts diverge from his head.

"What the hell?" He asked himself until he saw a plane flying around and his feelings rested. "Meh, is just Tails... is it me or he's flying more irregular than he usually does?"

"_Mina_!" Manic yelled panicked. "I don't feel good about this!"

"I understand you! Don't worry, you will get used to it!"

"Shouldn't you fly under Tails' supervision?"

"Oh come on Manic." She said mockingly. "Are you afraid?"

Manic said nothing and sunk on his seat, Mina laughed. "It will be alright Manic, trust me." She steered, perhaps too abruptly, making the hedgehog's heart skip a beat for a second. Mina fled around for a while and then pointed to the cockpit glass "Look!"

Manic looked through the glass and saw a view from Angel Island from above and was surprised to see how big it was in reality. There were several mountains and rivers, but one place called his attention, a gigantic crater filled with water. "What is that?"

"Hm? Oh. That's Mt. Fate.(2)" Mina answered. "Or was actually, now is nothing more than a big hole since Enerjak destroyed it."

Manic then spoke after a few moments of silence. "I wanna go down."

"What? But, we just started!"

"I need to go down _now,_ Mina." He demanded, feeling somewhat sorry for being so harsh. Mina nodded and proceeded to turn back to the track and land the plane.

After that, Manic left for his room, making sure that nobody talked to him. What was he doing? He had no time to be playing stupid! Farrel was god-knows-where and he was feeling worse every day; but at the same time, he felt like he didn't want to go just yet. It would hurt his siblings so much if he left again and Mina...

Wait. Mina? Why was he thinking about her? Was he...? No. He knew he possibly _couldn't _fall in love with her. He just couldn't, because, what if something happened to him? She would be alone, _again. _

What is more, what would happen to everybody else if he died? Again, he thought about hurting his siblings. Sonia would obviously cry, Sonic...

_"Sonic's like that with everybody, so is no big deal." _

_"Does that apply to you?"_

_"To me?" Manic asked. _

_"I mean... to this whole problem between you and Sonic." _

_"Yeah, I think it does Mina." _He thought. Maybe Sonic just doesn't want to show his feelings, he maybe doesn't like looking back. _Maybe that's why he didn't come with him to look for their mother._

"Pfft." Manic retored. "Is too late now, and I don't have time to figure that out, Farrel is in danger." He let himself fall on the bed. Tomorrow, he would leave to find Farrel.

* * *

1) In this universe of

prison, now is nothing more than a crater.

* * *

That was kinda sexy, huh? You know what would be sehier? Reviews, lots of them.

You know you wanna.


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